Broadband Coalition Statement on the 10th Circuit Court Decision on Market Power and Last Mile Facilities

For Immediate Release 
August 6, 2012                                                  

Contact: Debra Reed
Media@thebroadbandcoalition.com
                                           

Broadband Coalition Statement on the 10^th Circuit Court Decision on Market Power and Last Mile Facilities  

(Washington, DC)— The following statement was released today by former U.S. Congressman Chip Pickering, the spokesperson for The Broadband Coalition. 

“We applaud the 10^th Circuit’s decision to uphold the FCC’s adoption in the Phoenix Order of a reliable means of assessing the extent to which the incumbents have market power and whether it is necessary to ensure wholesale access to last mile facilities in light of that market power. 

The 10^th Circuit’s decision has far-reaching implications for the wholesale regime applicable to the business broadband marketplace.  In particular, the FCC should now apply the Phoenix Order market power framework to reassess past decisions to prematurely eliminate the wholesale access to incumbent packet-switched last mile facilities.  Those past decisions were based on unreliable analytical frameworks that have now been appropriately replaced by the Phoenix Order standard.  We look forward to working with the Commission on this reassessment process.”

The Broadband Coalition is a group of leading competitive broadband providers.  For more information on the issues of importance to the coalition, go to www.thebroadbandcoalition.com.

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