Competitive Service Safeguards for Local Exchange Carrier Provision of Commercial Mobile Radio Services and Implementation of Section 601(d) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
In this Report and Order, the Commission modifies the current structural separation requirement for the provision of cellular service by the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs), and adopts a new requirement that all incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs) provide in-region broadband CMRS, including cellular services, through a CMRS affiliate, subject to the Commission's accounting and affiliate transactions rules. Rural telephone companies will be exempt from this requirement; however, a competing carrier, interconnected with the rural carrier, may petition the Commission to remove the exemption, or the Commission may do so on its own motion, where the rural telephone company has engaged in anti-competitive conduct, such as discrimination. Companies serving fewer than two percent of the nation's subscriber lines that seek to provide broadband CMRS may petition the Commission for suspension or modification of the requirement that broadband CMRS be provided through a separate affiliate. These safeguards are adopted to address concerns that recent developments in the CMRS market, such as direct competition among telecommunications carriers and the development of fixed wireless services, may increase the incentive for anti-competitive behavior by incumbent LECs. The separate affiliate requirement will sunset on January 1, 2002, unless the Commission determines that the competitive conditions in the local exchange market are such that continuation of these safeguards is in the public interest.