Rural Associations File Reply Comments on RoR Represcription

Today, NECA, WTA, NTCA, USTelecom and ERTA responded to comments filed in response to the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau’s Staff Report on represcribing the authorized rate of return for RLECs.  The associations notes that the comments of other interested parties “make clear that rules and methods developed to prescribe the authorized interstate rate of return for the ‘unified’ telecommunications industry of the 1980’s cannot rationally be applied to rate-of-return-regulated local exchange carriers operating in today’s telecommunications marketplace.”

The associations also reiterate their position that “Before proceeding further with a represcription, the Commission must (a) specify represcription procedures that provide affected RLECs with the “full opportunity for hearing” expressly required by section 205(a) of the Act, and (b) develop methods to analyze the cost of capital for RLECs that reflect the diverse, highly competitive, and increasingly uncertain telecommunications environment faced by these companies today.”