FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, both Republicans, said in a statement that the FCC decision will help Verizon roll out broadband by eliminating regulations that deter investment in new services. They noted that Verizon said it will continue to make DS1 and DS3 service available in a nondiscriminatory manner.

"This relief will enable Verizon to have the flexibility to further deploy its broadband services and fiber facilities without overly burdensome regulations," Martin and Tate said in the statement.

But the Democrats on the FCC, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, said in separate statements that they oppose the Verizon exemptions. "I am deeply disappointed," Copps said in his statement. "This is not the way to make environment-altering policy changes."

Copps said he worried that the Verizon ruling "erases decades of communications policy in a single stroke," and said the result could be that Verizon is freed from obligations such as having to cooperate with federal wiretapping statutes or having to pay into the Universal Service Fund, which is used to subsidize voice and data services mainly in rural areas.

U.S. President George Bush nominated Republican Robert McDowell to the fifth FCC commissioner position, and his confirmation is now awaiting U.S. Senate action.