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FCC can define markets with only one ISP as "competitive," court rules
From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2018 22:29:31 -0400
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Date: August 30, 2018 at 10:10:36 PM EDT To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC can define markets with only one ISP as "competitive," court rules Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com [Note: This item comes from friend Ed DeWath. DLH] FCC can define markets with only one ISP as “competitive,” court rules The FCC can "choose which evidence to believe," court says. By Jon Brodkin Aug 29 2018 <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/fcc-can-define-markets-with-only-one-isp-as-competitive-court-rules/> An appeals court has upheld a Federal Communications Commission ruling that broadband markets can be competitive even when there is only one Internet provider. The FCC can "rationally choose which evidence to believe among conflicting evidence," the court ruling said. The FCC voted last year to eliminate price caps imposed on some business broadband providers such as AT&T and Verizon. The FCC decision eliminated caps in any given county if 50 percent of potential customers "are within a half mile of a location served by a competitive provider." This is known as the "competitive market test." Because of this, broadband-using businesses might not benefit from price controls even if they have just one choice of ISP. The FCC decision was challenged in court by Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) and purchasers of business broadband, including Sprint and Windstream. But the FCC order was mostly upheld yesterday in a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. The court said that the FCC provided adequate notice to the public before making most of the changes in the deregulation order. The court also rejected challenges to the economic theory and merits of the FCC's competitive market test. The FCC's decision to lift price caps affected Business Data Services (BDS), which are dedicated, point-to-point broadband links delivered over copper-based TDM networks by incumbent phone companies like AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink. The decision affects prices paid by customers including businesses, government agencies, schools, libraries, hospitals, and wireless carriers. The FCC and petitioners disagreed over whether it's generally economically viable for CLECs to expand their networks to locations within a half-mile. "The dispute here is whether the evidence shows that the CLEC [Competitive Local Exchange Carrier] Petitioners cannot economically build out to low-bandwidth customers in areas deemed competitive by the Competitive Market Test," judges wrote. "The FCC did not believe the CLEC Petitioners' evidence, and the CLEC Petitioners protest that the evidence compels a finding in their favor." The FCC "cited evidence that some competitors will build as far as a mile out," and said that "most of the buildings at issue are far closer to competitive fiber than half a mile," the court ruling noted. While petitioners presented data suggesting that it isn't generally economically feasible to expand networks, the FCC argued that "the CLEC Petitioners' studies inflate costs by selecting the most expensive build (entirely underground lines), presuming a separate lateral line for each individual low-bandwidth customer, and treating the main fiber ring as part of the cost of reaching new customers rather than as an existing 'sunk' cost near a potential new customer," judges wrote. Judges concluded that the evidence in support of both arguments is credible and that the FCC can decide which one it wants to believe: [snip] Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp
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- FCC can define markets with only one ISP as "competitive," court rules Dave Farber (Aug 31)