CenturyLink, the communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company, today announced that it would file a motion to strike what it termed the “irretrievably flawed” data framework underlying the Federal Communications Commission’s recent business data services proposal. AT&T, Cincinnati Bell, Consolidated Communications, FairPoint Communications, and Frontier Communications will join CenturyLink in filing the motion.
The motion comes in response to recent acknowledgements by four of the largest cable providers that they significantly undercounted the number of locations that are capable of providing business data services and thus deemed competitive.
John F. Jones, CenturyLink SVP for Public Policy and Government Relations said:
We are extremely concerned that the FCC’s latest business broadband proposal is now based on fatally flawed data that, unless corrected and updated, could have serious economic consequences for the business broadband market. We’re asking the FCC to rescind the affected portions of its proposal and update its data before pronouncing judgment on what is or isn’t competitive.
The company’s motion said that “the FCC’s FNPRM proposes a big, positive step towards deregulating competitive areas.” However, the commission’s decisions were not factually grounded as analyses submitted were based on what it termed to be “an irretrievably flawed data set that severely understated cable providers’ ability to provision true business data services”.
The motion demands that the flawed materials be stricken from the record and to conduct new analyses reflecting accurate data.