IP transition shouldn't be a license to price gouge CLECs, business customers, says Windstream

Windstream says in two new filings it made with the Federal Communications Commission that the incumbent telephone companies' move to an all-IP network, while promising in terms of new services, should not give them license to raise prices on wholesale circuits they provide to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), a factor that would increase costs for the small to medium businesses (SMBs) they serve. Windstream submitted comments on two proceedings that address competitive concerns in the business services market: the FCC's Technology Transitions Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Windstream's Petition for Declaratory Ruling regarding incumbent carriers' obligations to provide access to unbundled high-capacity loops.

Being a hybrid CLEC and ILEC, Windstream is in an interesting position in dealing with the IP transition and using ILEC last mile facilities. Like other service providers, Windstream is an advocate of using fiber wherever it can, but in many situations where it is serving either an SMB that only needs a lower speed connection or the site of a multi-location enterprise, it often can't prove a business case to build fiber facilities to these locations. That means that it has to obtain access to a local ILEC's copper or fiber loops to deliver service.