FCC deregulates Verizon broadband prices

27.03.2006
The Federal Communications Commission announced last week that it deregulated the prices Verizon Communications Inc. can charge businesses for high-speed data services, a move that outraged corporate customers.

"Verizon was already price-gouging customers while it was regulated, and this action significantly raises the risk for prices to increase on the broadband building blocks for enterprise customers," said Washington attorney Colleen Boothby. She represents a group of 27 corporate customers known as the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee.

The FCC decision, which took effect March 19 without a formal vote, exempts Verizon from long-standing regulations requiring carriers to file rates with the FCC for approval.

The corporate telecommunications user group had argued in a 14-page brief to the FCC that Verizon shouldn't be exempted from FCC rules because business broadband markets are not yet competitive and services are costly.

"This kind of decision -- to give Verizon what it wants, regardless of whether that hurts customers -- is what gives Washington a bad name," Boothby said. She and other government observers predicted that the decision will be appealed.

"Anybody who buys these services for a living knows that the market for business broadband just isn't competitive," Boothby said. "That may be a politically inconvenient fact, but it's still a fact."