Rural Telcos, CenturyLink Urge FCC Not to Overhaul Jurisdictional Separations Rules

Rural telco groups and CenturyLink urged FCC caution in revising separations rules for how costs are allocated between the federal and state jurisdictions. ITTA said the FCC should eliminate the separations regime for price-cap carriers. Comments were posted Wednesday and Thursday in docket 80-286. The FCC recently extended a freeze on jurisdictional separations rules for 18 months while a federal-state joint board attempts to develop new proposals (see 1705150064).

NTCA said the board should recommend keeping existing separations rules. The board "should also solicit comment on specific separations reform proposals prior to issuing a recommended decision and should consider proposing conforming amendments to the FCC’s Part 36 separations rules as a result of reforms to the agency’s Part 32 accounting rules," the RLEC group said. "WTA believes that the scope of the carriers, services and high-cost support mechanisms governed by Part 36 has narrowed so much during recent years that a significant overhaul of the separations rules is neither necessary nor cost-justified at this time," it said. "Rather than major separations modifications, WTA believes that minor revisions and simplifications are more practicable and effective."

The separations process is "an important and complex undertaking," USTelecom said. "The Commission should note that due to the very few carriers impacted by separations, there is no need to overhaul the rules, but rather make necessary updates that are aimed at the current realities of the regulatory regime and that any update should include, for those limited number of carriers that have elected [model-based USF support] the ability to unfreeze their category relationships right away."

"Now is not the time ... to start investing resources in reforming the Part 36 Jurisdictional Separations Rules," CenturyLink said. "Problems with the Commission’s Part 36 rules cannot be remedied by 'tinkering' or adjustments such as those proposed by the State Members. ... CenturyLink is also skeptical that even a major overhaul of the separations rules would serve any useful purpose. Telecommunications markets and technology are changing too fast. A major overhaul, even if it “fixed” the current separations rules that have been frozen since 2001, would soon become outdated and subject to criticism for not producing the 'right' answer."

ITTA urged the FCC to "take the long overdue step of eliminating the jurisdictional separations mechanisms as they apply to price cap carriers," its filing said. "There is no practical reason to maintain these requirements for price cap carriers, and the few states that still apply separations processes should not pose an impediment to terminating these requirements at the federal level."

The "Irregulators" urged the FCC to read their detailed reports and the joint board to investigate whether the commission has adequately examined its record before it dismantles cost-accounting rules. "[T]he massive cross-subsidies created by the FCC’s failure to examine the record for 16 years is seriously problematic and needs a complete and thorough review, as well as an investigation into the impacts on customers and the economic growth of America," said the group, which includes New Networks Institute Executive Director Bruce Kushnick and nine others.