FCC Must Act to Continue Unbundling of High-Speed DS1 Local Loops
RESTON, VA – September 30, 2004 – In a petition filed late yesterday with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), XO Communications, Inc. (OTCBB: XOCM.OB) called on the FCC to affirm its commitment to facilities-based local telephone competition by ruling that the Bell telephone companies must continue to provide access to unbundled high-speed DS1 local loops at cost-based wholesale rates.
Rather than waiting until the end of the six-month interim period for the FCC to issue its new rules for local telephone competition, XO has requested that the FCC act immediately to continue requiring the availability of unbundled DS1 local loops at cost-based wholesale rates, a position that all of the FCC commissioners have already publicly supported. In comments following the FCC’s Interim Order on August 20, 2004, FCC Chairman Powell stated, “I supported fully requiring incumbents to unbundled DS1 loops and transport, as did every one of my colleagues. I remain steadfastly committed to providing the key network elements to these facilities competitors in this proceeding, without which they would be impaired.”
“The FCC must send a prompt and unambiguous signal that the Bell telephone companies must provide unbundled high-speed DS1 loops to competitive carriers at cost-based rates,” said Heather Gold, senior vice president of Government Relations at XO Communications. “These are critical network elements competitive carriers utilize in order to provide millions of small and medium-sized businesses with an alternative to the monopoly Bells.”
“It is clear that the standards, under which the FCC found competitive carriers would be competitively impaired without access to these network elements, remain valid today. Therefore, the FCC can easily reaffirm its prior rules and bring regulatory certainty on this issue so that facilities-based carriers can continue to invest in delivering competitive broadband services to business and residential customers,” added Gold.
About XO Communications
XO Communications is a leading provider of national and local telecommunications services to businesses, large enterprises and telecommunications companies. XO offers a complete portfolio of services, including local and long distance voice, dedicated Internet access, private networking, data transport, and Web hosting services as well as bundled voice and Internet solutions. XO provides these services over an advanced, national facilities-based IP network and serves more than 70 metropolitan markets across the United States. For more information, visit www.xo.com.
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For more information contact:
Chad Couser/XO Communications
703-547-2746
chad.couser@xo.com
