Deployment of Wireline Services Offering Advanced Telecommunications Capability

This document addresses whether the discounted resale obligation of section 251(c)(4) applies to incumbent LEC provision of advanced services without regard to their classification as telephone exchange or exchange access. The Commission determines that analysis of section 251(c)(4) requires a fact-specific evaluation of the features and characteristics of a particular transaction, and concludes that advanced services sold at retail by incumbent LECs to residential and business end-users are subject to the section 251(c)(4) discounted resale obligation, without regard to their classification as telephone exchange service or exchange access service. The Commission, however, reaches a different result as to advanced services sold to Internet Service Providers for inclusion in a high-speed Internet service offering, concluding that these advanced services are inherently different from advanced services made available directly to business and residential end-users, and as such, are not subject to the discounted resale obligations of section 251(c)(4).