Cox Communications wants EoHFC kept out of BDS regulation

Cox wants Ethernet over Hybrid Fiber Coax (EoHFC) excluded from requirements of the proposed business data service (BDS) rules being considered by the FCC, arguing that the technology is best-effort and doesn’t meet the SLA requirements for wholesale-type broadband services required by many businesses.

The cable MSO said in a filing with the commission that there is “no basis to impose rate regulation on nondominant carriers” and that even Incompas members only want the market leader or ILEC in each geographic market to be subject to BDS regulation. Further, it argued, not all providers are common carriers – especially not cable operators.

EoHFC does not fall within the FCC’s defined product market for BDS regulation and should therefore by excluded, Cox argued. The technology is “more akin to a best-efforts service than to BDS … The parties that purchase BDS, in particular, note that they do not consider EoHFC a substitute for BDS, which demonstrates that it is not in the same product market.”

What’s more, Cox said, EoHFC can’t meet the broadband requirements of businesses in BDS areas, because its capacity is shared with cable and broadband services being delivered to residents and small business customers. “The shared nature of the network limits capacity and precludes offering robust performance guarantees.”

CenturyLink and other telcos filed comments in July with the FCC saying that cable operators’ hybrid networks need to be included in the commission’s estimate of available service, which would increase the number of available BDS networks by 22 times.

The ILEC, along with Frontier Communications, FairPoint, Cincinnati Bell and Consolidated Communications, formed the “Invest In Broadband for America” coalition to convince the FCC to reconsider its current BDS proposal, including the addition of available EoHFC networks to its reckoning.

For more:
- see this filing
- and this letter to the FCC

Related articles:
CenturyLink: Cable operators have 22 times more Ethernet-capable locations than BDS data lists
CenturyLink, Frontier lead new special access coalition targeting BDS proposal