The Federal Communications Commission faces an FCC deadline of this Wednesday to rule on the forbearance petition of Verizon Communications, which seeks relief from access charge regulation. A Verizon forbearance petition went into effect when the FCC failed to act, and it doesn't look like that will happen here. There is already one report that the FCC will deny Verizon's petition. If Verizon doesn't like its prospects, it can still withdraw its petition before a decision is made.
Meanwhile, the FCC appears ready to act on a rule-making that would look into the viability of forbearance petitions. The agency reportedly has been under a lot of pressure from Congress and, more obviously, CLECs, for allowing the major ILECs price relief through the forbearance process.
For more:
- read this Dow Jones story from CNN Money
Related articles:
- The FCC partially approved AT&T's forbearance petition in October