APPEALS JUDGE QUESTIONS PART OF FCC UNBUNDLING ORDER

摘要

Court questioning suggests the FCC抯 network unbundling rules under the Telecom Act could be in trouble for a third time. A federal judge put FCC attorney John Ingle in the hot seat Mon., demanding to know where the FCC got the 搃mpairment standard?it used to limit unbundled access to high-capacity loops and transport in a Feb. 2005 order. At issue in an oral argument before the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., was an FCC decision to limit competitor access to the Bells?high- capacity facilities based on results of a test to gauge if competitors would be 搃mpaired?without such access. Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg asked Ingle for the source of the numbers on which the impairment test is based. Ingle had trouble answering. Ginsburg said he just wanted to know how the FCC got the numbers and asked Ingle to 搒how your work, like in grade school.?Ingle later gave the court several citations in the FCC order but it wasn抰 clear if that was what Ginsburg wanted. nnThe high-capacity impairment issue was one of several parts of the 2005 order -- also known as the Triennial Review Remand Order. Attorneys for the Bells and competitive carriers challenged different parts of the order during oral argument. The order, the FCC抯 3rd attempt to write unbundled network element (UNE) rules able to pass legal muster, also dropped mass market switching and dark fiber from the list of UNEs available to competitors at reduced rates. By dropping switching, the FCC also eliminated the UNE platform as a vehicle for low cost competitive entry. Ingle said the FCC was following 損ointed directions?in 2 court remands on how to design the impairment standards and that the agency has met those requirements. 揟he court should affirm and bring this long exercise to an end,?Ingle said.