Pa. PUC proposed rescinding April order to require that Verizon c...

Verizon and other incumbent telcos don’t use their local market power to unfairly favor or promote their own retail services over those of competitors through wholesale discrimination, cross- subsidies, other abuses. PUC said functional separation no longer was needed because Verizon in its successful Sec. 271 long distance case proved to PUC and FCC that it was providing nondiscriminatory wholesale service to its competitors. Proposed rules would explicitly prohibit cross- subsidizing competitive services with revenue from noncompetitive services and bar telco technicians repairing service on behalf of CLEC from telling customer that problem would have been fixed faster had user stayed with incumbent. Rules would bar employees of telcos’ wholesale service divisions from sharing with retail marketing division proprietary customer information they received when accepting service change orders from CLECs, to ensure against launch of win-back efforts by incumbent even before carrier changeover was made. Rules would prohibit one telecom provider from claiming its services were superior to those of another unless claim was supported by fact. Comments on proposed rules will be due 30 days after their official publication in Pa. Bulletin. PUC agreed unanimously to put proposed rules out for comment. Agency disregarded call by CLEC interests to have PUC Vice Chmn. Robert Bloom recuse himself from proceeding for allegedly violating state sunshine laws by sending memo to other PUC members proposing changes such as rescinding functional separation that CLECs said would greatly weaken rules.