FCC To Investigate GTE's DSL Digital Service
[Jurisdictional Border Skirmishes]
August 25, 1998
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., Newsbytes via NewsEdge
Corporation : The Federal Communications Commission
Friday announced that it would open investigations into
GTE's plans to offer a digital subscriber line service. GTE
hopes the service will be taxed at the federal level, but
this has met opposition from a number of companies that
maintain the line should be taxed at the state level.
The commission has found there is little precedent on
record to properly address concerns several petitioners
have regarding GTE's digital data service.
Opposing companies, including America Online Inc.,
argued that the DSL service, which is supposed to
operate in 14 states, is in fact an intrastate service, and
therefore subject to state tariffs.
AOL and other petitioners claim that Internet service
providers (ISPs) are the real end-users of data line
services, not GTE's customers. This, they argue, would
make it stand to reason that ISPs using GTE's service
within GTE's 14- state would make GTE liable for local,
not federal taxes. According to GTE's opponents, 17
states currently view ISPs as end-users instead of the
ISP's customers.
GTE responded that the DSL service "is properly tariffed
at the federal level," and that "it is the nature of the
communication itself, rather than the location of the
technology, that determines the jurisdictional
classification of a service."
In its original filing, GTE also said that the DSL service
should be subjected to federal tariffs because Internet
access is primarily an interstate activity, because the line
will involve dedicated data transport and because DSL
conforms to an access service criterion under section
69.2 of the FCC's rules.
Petitioners Focal and ICG also argue that the GTE DSL
service only is offered to ISPs interconnected to GTE
wire centers, not to other telecommunications carriers.
Focal and ICG said that the DSL service only can be
classified as an access service if it offers access to
telephone exchange services.
GTE also is under fire from several competitors which
claim that the carrier has violated section 251 of the
Telecom Act, which states that incumbent local
exchange carriers (ILECs) "must offer for resale any
telecommunications service that the carrier provides at
retail to subscribers who are not telecommunications
carriers." ILECs also must provide access to its network
on an unbundled basis, as well as interconnection, to
any requesting telecommunications carriers.
By offering the DSL service as an exchange access
service only, claim petitioners E*Spire and Intermedia,
GTE will effectively remove DSL services in general from
being subject to section 251.
The FCC has instructed GTE to present a case for
keeping the status quo on its DSL service by September
3. Opponents must present their own positions before
September 14.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network:
newsbytes.com
(19980824/WIRES TELECOM, ONLINE, BUSINESS,
GOVT, LEGAL/)
<<Newsbytes -- 08-24-98>>
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