House Members Seek Data Case Appeal
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 6/26/2002 12:10:00 PM
One-dozen House lawmakers Monday asked the Bush administration to appeal a case that they said dealt a serious blow to the advancement of local phone and high-speed-data competition.
In a June 24 letter, the House members said the Department of Justice should seek Supreme Court review of the case and ask the deciding lower court to stay its ruling 'to prevent disruption in the broadband industry while that decision is appealed.'
The letter was signed by nine Democrats, including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), and three Republicans, including Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah.). The letter was sent to Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell, U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
In the case, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in May told the FCC its list of network elements -- those pieces of the incumbent local phone network that must be leased to competitors -- was too broad.
The panel also overturned FCC rules that permitted high-speed-data companies to save on cost by leasing just the high-frequency portion of a copper loop to provide competitive digital-subscriber-line service.
The lawmakers said the D.C. Circuit's ruling injected uncertainty into the market and clashed with a recent Supreme Court ruling favorable to the FCC on the scope of the commission's power to promote local phone and data competition.
'Without the clarification of a Supreme Court decision, the [FCC] and the states could be subjected to conflicting and confusing court decisions for many years to come,' the lawmakers said in the two-page letter.
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