NTCA To File Amicus Supporting Great Lakes Comnet in FCC Challenge
NTCA plans to file an amicus brief in support of Great Lakes Comnet's challenge to an FCC order that sided with AT&T in an access charge dispute, the rural telco trade group told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…
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D.C. Circuit Monday. The brief is due Wednesday, an attorney told us Tuesday. NTCA said it had received consent from all the parties in the case to file the brief, which will be limited to the FCC's interpretation of "rural CLEC" and "competing ILEC." Great Lakes Comnet and its subsidiary Westphalia Telephone Co. argued in their brief that there were six reasons for overturning the FCC March 18 order that found GLC had billed AT&T for interstate access services under a tariff that violated its CLEC "benchmark" tariff rules (see 1508190065). GLC/WTC said even if GLC were a CLEC, which they disputed, the commission should have found the company was exempt from the benchmark rate regulations as a "rural CLEC." They also said the agency erred in finding GLC violated its rules by exceeding the rates of the "competing ILEC" because it erroneously identified that ILEC as AT&T Michigan. The case is Great Lakes Comnet v. FCC, No. 15-1064.