California v. Federal Communications Commission

OVERVIEW

MCI Corporation and the State of California petition for review of four FCC orders approving access arrangements, known as Open Network Architecture (ONA), to the telephone transmission network. 1 MCI and the numerous supporting intervenors 2 (collectively referred to as MCI), are all competitors of the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) in providing “enhanced services” to telephone customers based on rapidly expanding computer technology. They are concerned about gaining equal access to the telephone communications network, controlled by the BOCs as regulated regional monopolies, in the aftermath of the break up of AT & T.

MCI is concerned that the orders do not provide sufficient protection from the BOCs’ possible discrimination against competitors in the face of impending elimination of the structural separation of the BOCs’ basic telephone services from their own enhanced telecommunications services. MCI contends that the FCC, by approving these orders, has violated the Administrative Procedure Act both by departing without adequate explanation from prior policy and by refusing to consider evidence of the inadequacy of ONA, as adopted, to prevent discrimination.

The…