Ronan Telephone Co. v. Federal Communications Commission

MEMORANDUM

Ronan Telephone Company and Hot Springs Telephone Company petition this court to review the FCC’s February 24, 2005 Declaratory Ruling and Report and Order (the “Order”). We grant the petition and remand.

1. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“TCA”) ended local telephone service monopolies and permitted telephone companies “for the first time to compete with each other for local telephone customers.” AT & T Commc’ns of Cal., Inc. v. Pac-West Telecomm, Inc., 651 F.3d 980, 982 (9th Cir.2011). For regulatory purposes, the TCA divided local telephone companies into two groups: incumbent local exchange carriers (“ILECs”), the pre-TCA monopoly actors, and competitive local exchange carriers (“CLECs”), the post-TCA market entrants. Id.

2. The TCA opened local telephone markets to the new entrants and encouraged competition among ILECs and CLECs through a system that imposed “special obligations on ILECs to mitigate their dominant market position.” Pac-West, 651 F.3d at 983 ; Verizon Md., Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 535 U.S. 635, 638 , 122 S.Ct. 1753 , 152 L.Ed.2d 871 (2002). However, Congress also included exceptions directed toward rural communities. Thus, many ILECs could…