The FAB Does It Again

Perhaps we should rename the FCC, the FAB ─ Forbearance-Approving Body. You see, commissioners earlier this week did it again ─ they granted another forbearance petition.

This was an under-the-radar request from Qwest, which two weeks ago was denied a much larger – and what would have been more problematic – forbearance petition. This time, on Aug. 5, the carrier got relief from government pricing for enterprise broadband services. It’s very similar to what Verizon got in March 2006, what AT&T received last fall and what Embarq Corp. also has secured.

I’m curious whether CLECs are worried, since enterprise broadband forbearance more immediately impacts businesses. For CLECs with their own networks, the concern is “we may not be able to buy services in the future ... if we do not know the prices we would have to pay an ILEC or even negotiate a fair price,” one CLEC rep told me. (What about CLECs that don’t have facilities? What kind of impact will this have on you?)

Of course, if you drink the Bell Kool-Aid, you’ll take a different view. Shirley Bloomfield, Qwest’s VP of federal relations, put it this way in a press release: The FCC’s order lets Qwest provide “customized pricing” for business customers. Uh oh. Now, I adore Shirley, but that “customized pricing” reference makes me shudder. Because I take the phrase to mean, “Guess what! We get to charge whatever we want!”

This latest forbearance approval also highlights that the Kevin Martin-led FAB seems more bent on rewriting the Telecom Act in a roundabout way than considering the impact of all this deregulation. Look at how the mortgage, credit, airline and utilities industries have imploded post-deregulation and how the economy is suffering as a result. We don’t need the telecom sector following suit.

I’m surprised not to see more outrage from the CLEC community. Maybe everyone’s tired of fighting the good fight. Or maybe everyone’s snoozing on a $7 pillow on their flight home from summer vacation.

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