Several competitors to AT&T and Verizon proposed the OMB approval for data collection in the FCC’s slow-moving inquiry into special access rates. The FCC circulated a proposed order on special access in mid-2012, but late that year, also asked for comments on the special access market. Those comments aren’t due until late this year.
“Countless industries and organizations and hundreds of millions of customers across the country depend on this critical broadband infrastructure to connect our cell phones, workplaces, banks, factories, data centers, universities, and hospitals to enable communications among customers, employees, suppliers, government, and each one of us,” a coalition spokeswoman said by email.
Asked for a response to the OMB approval, an AT&T spokeswoman pointed to a 2012 blog post by Bob Quinn, the company’s senior vice president of federal regulatory affairs.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, however, called special access “increasingly important in the digital economy.” The new data collection will help the FCC “better understand competition in this marketplace, and the impact on consumers as we pursue the commission’s statutory mandate to ensure special access services are provided at reasonable rates and on reasonable terms and conditions,” he said in a statement.