FCC Needs More Time to Tinker!
tr.com
FCC Expected To Delay Consideration Of ISP Status, Advanced Service Rules
The FCC is likely to drop two of the items on the "sunshine agenda" for its meeting this Thursday in the wake of yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the agency's 1996 "carrier interconnection" order. Although it hadn't officially changed the agenda at TRDaily's deadline late this afternoon, Commission sources predicted delay for consideration of the jurisdiction of dial-up Internet traffic, as well as for one of the two actions it was planning to take regarding the deployment of advanced telecom services.
Section 706 of the Act includes a statutory deadline for the FCC to issue its report on the deployment of advanced telecom services, and the agency will move forward with plans to release that report Thursday. But it likely will delay adopting new rules in Common Carrier docket 98-147 intended to spur the deployment of advanced telecom services (TR, Aug. 10, 1998).
Sources said the Supreme Court's ruling may require the agency to make some changes in the items, but the core policies aren't expected to change. The court's conclusion that the FCC hadn't addressed the appropriate standards when it created the list of unbundled network elements for competitors is ***requiring the agency to tinker with its advanced services rules,*** TR's sources said. And the court's ruling that the FCC has jurisdiction to offer local competition pricing rules could require some changes to the agency's action on jurisdiction for dial-up Internet calls.
Other items on tap for Thursday's FCC meeting include audits of the Bell companies, the definition of "primary lines" for the purposes of access charges and universal service, an order on payphone compensation, and reconsideration of the agency's nonaccounting safeguards for Bell affiliates under section 272. |
