The Federal Communication Commission rejected Verizon Communications' petition for forbearance from access charges in six of its East coast markets, acting on the petition a full day ahead of today's deadline to do so. Maybe the FCC learned from experience: Last year's Verizon forbearance petition affecting other markets was effectively granted when the FCC failed to act under deadline.
There have been rumblings for the past several days the petition would be denied, and you have to wonder if the FCC is taking a new, tougher stance on forbearance after many in the industry have said that large ILECs are exploiting the forbearance request process that was set up by the Telecom Act of 1996.
For more:
- here's a report in BusinessWeek
Related articles:
- The FCC granted a forbearance request from AT&T in OctoberÂ