Associations File Comments Opposing Proposed Plan to Represcribe Rate of Return

Today, NECA, WTA, NTCA, ERTA and USTelecom filed joint comments responding to the FCC’s Public Notice requesting feedback on a Wireline Competition Bureau Staff Report regarding potential data and methods to be used in represcribing the authorized interstate rate of return for rate-of-return regulated RLECs.

The associations make the point, assisted by an academic analysis by Randall Billingsly, PhD, of Virginia Tech, that the methods used in the Staff Report to estimate the weighted average cost of capital “suffer from serious shortcomings as applied to RLECs, and require significant modification.” The comments also highlight procedural issues the Commission must address before taking any steps to change the authorized ROR.