AT&T asked the FCC to reject the National Exchange Carrier Assn.’s...
AT&T asked the FCC to reject the National Exchange Carrier Assn.’s average schedule formulas for July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, saying the “immensely costly ’transition payment’ plan” proposed would benefit rural carriers but harm others. AT&T said…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
the agency should ignore NTCA and OPASTCO’s support, since the plan would only help “their respective constituencies.” The rural trade groups’ comments “simply parrot NECA’s purported justification for the transition plan and fall equally short of providing any valid basis for the Commission to adopt those proposed modifications,” AT&T said. But NECA said in replies the rural telcos are pointing to a problem the Commission must address. “Comments filed by NTCA and OPASTCO show… that the proposed transition is necessary to assure average schedule companies are not harmed by sudden reductions in interstate access settlements that may occur if the new formulas are implemented on a flash-cut basis,” NECA said: “The Commission itself has recognized the importance of introducing average schedule formula reductions gradually by approving, and in some cases mandating, similar settlement transitions in the past.”