Comptel filed a petition for reconsideration Thursday in...

Comptel filed a petition for reconsideration Thursday in the FCC’s rural call completion proceeding, asking the commission to “reconsider the contours” of the small carrier exemption in its November order. The FCC should restore the original version of the exemption in its rulemaking, which would exempt any telco with 100,000 subscribers or fewer from complying with the order’s reporting, data retention and record-keeping requirements, Compel said in its petition. The version the FCC included in the order exempted only telcos with 100,000 or fewer subscriber lines (http://bit.ly/19xkkke). That revision will increase the number of telcos that must abide by the order by 150 percent, Comptel said in a news release. The FCC should reconsider the exemption language because it failed to provide adequate notice and time for public comment on the narrower definition in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, Comptel said. The FCC “acted arbitrarily and capriciously in adopting the revised definition of small carrier without explaining the reasoning behind it,” the telco said. The FCC did not comment.