FCC denied petition by 2 groups of local telcos that sought addit...
FCC denied petition by 2 groups of local telcos that sought additional regulation of Western Wireless service in Kan. State Independent Alliance and Independent Telecom Group asked FCC in Nov. 2000 for declaratory ruling that Western Wireless’ Basic Universal…
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Service (BUS) wasn’t commercial mobile radio service (CMRS). Such ruling would have meant Kan. Corp. Commission (KCC) wasn’t precluded by federal law from applying wireline LEC regulations to BUS. FCC, with Comr. Martin dissenting, concluded BUS was CMRS offering, so KCC couldn’t regulate BUS entry or rates and couldn’t require it to provide equal access for telephone toll services. Mark Rubin, Western Wireless federal govt. affairs dir., said company was “grateful that the FCC saw the petition for what it was -- a bold end-around the Communications Act’s prohibition against state or local governments’ regulating the entry of or the rates charged by a CMRS provider.” Issue is part of continual debate in states over how to classify Western Wireless’ wireless local loop service. Martin said he found it “difficult to believe this… offering, which is designed specifically to qualify for universal service subsidies, should be deemed exempt from regulations and universal service fund requirements applicable to wireline local exchange carriers providing essentially the same service.”