AT&T Endorses FCC International Bearer Circuit Fee Proposals, Concerned About Others' Ideas
AT&T backed FCC proposals to revise international bearer circuit (IBC) regulatory fee tiers for undersea cable capacity and to apply the new tiers to all international terrestrial and satellite capacity. The telco supported "the addition of lower fee tiers for…
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providers with small volumes of IBC capacity," said a filing posted in docket 17-134 Monday on a meeting with Office of Managing Director and International Bureau officials. AT&T noted its concerns about a CenturyLink proposal for a two-tier fee for terrestrial and satellite circuits (see 1801160033). That "would not fairly allocate these fees," given "disparities" in operator circuit volumes "likely to increase as the result of the Commission’s recent decision to apply the IBC regulatory fees to non-common carrier terrestrial circuits," AT&T said, referring to a September order (paragraph 34). It's also concerned about a Submarine Cable Coalition proposal to "replace a significant portion of the IBC fees on non-common carrier submarine cables (or all IBC fees for all cables) with a flat fee on international [Communications Act] Section 214 authorizations," saying "such changes would effectively reverse the Commission’s decisions to provide a competitively neutral IBC fee structure."