Randolph May, president of free market think thank the Free State Foundation, called efforts to regulate special access "wrong headed."

Other companies are building networks to compete with the large special access providers, he said. "Competitors have been seizing, and continue to seize, opportunities to enter the 'special access' market segment and build out new network facilities -- even though they are clever enough not to market their competitive services under the 'special access' moniker," May wrote in an email. "If the FCC were to reverse course and require the incumbent providers to reduce the rates for their special access services, the incentive for competitors to continue investing in the build-out of new facilities would be suppressed."

But U.S. Representative Mike Doyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, praised the FCC for tackling special access rates. "This is not just about a battle between carriers," he said in a statement. "This is about the pocketbooks of consumers and small businesses. They need all the relief they can get."

The IDG News Service