The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed AT&T and...

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed AT&T and Verizon Wireless a loss in a dispute with incumbent LECs in North Carolina over a ruling on interconnection agreements by the North Carolina Utilities Commission. The wireless carriers challenged the NCUC’s ruling that they, the terminating wireless carriers, bear the responsibility of paying transit charges for calls that originate on the wireline company’s networks, cross an intermediate network operated by AT&T, and terminate with the wireless carriers. The NCUC also concluded that the wireless carriers could seek reimbursement from the rural LECs for these transit charges through reciprocal compensation arrangements. The NCUC determined that the obligation to pay transit charges depends on the location of the physical point of interconnection between and designated a single point located with the RLECs’ networks. The 4th Circuit asked the FCC for guidance. “No prior FCC order has addressed whether the originating carrier or the terminating carrier is responsible for paying transit charges to an intermediate carrier under the facts presented here,” the commission said in a brief (http://xrl.us/bmybsw). “Nor has the FCC clearly opined on whether the Communications Act authorizes state commissions to suspend or modify the application of federal pricing requirements to small rural telephone companies.” A lower court in North Carolina granted summary judgment in favor the ILECs and the state commission. The Richmond, Va.,-based appeals court agreed, in a decision by Judge Andre Davis. “Because we ultimately agree with the arguments advanced by the RLECs and the NCUC, we affirm the judgment of the district court,” Davis wrote (http://xrl.us/bmybtt). The NCUC’s decision “is worthy of some deference,” he said. “Although we review legal issues of a federal nature, the NCUC has ‘expertise and experience in applying [tenets of] communications law,'” the court said. “The NCUC proceedings involved evidence and argument, and the parties prefiled testimony, participated in an evidentiary hearing, and briefed the arguments.”