WASHINGTON-Agreeing with a Federal Communications Commission decision, a federal appeals court has ruled one-way paging carriers are entitled to compensation from local exchange carriers.
“We will not second-guess the agency,” said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Dec. 27.
“The 9th Circuit’s decision confirms what the industry has been saying for nearly three years. This is a win for competition, the paging industry and the FCC,” said Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association.
The case between Cook Telecom Inc. and Pacific Bell began in August 1996, when Cook asked Pacific Bell to enter into interconnection negotiations. When these negotiations broke down over the issue of whether Cook could receive compensation from the LEC for terminating traffic, an arbitrator was brought in.
The arbitrator ruled in Pacific Bell’s favor, saying one-way paging carriers did not send traffic to Pac Bell’s network so it could not receive reciprocal compensation.
That was the only round Pac Bell won, however.
The California Public Utilities Commission in 1997 reversed the arbitrator’s ruling, basing its decision on FCC rules that state paging carriers are telecommunications carriers and all telecom carriers are entitled to reciprocal compensation.
The district court agreed with the CPUC and Pac Bell was forced to take its case before the 9th Circuit.
Noting that a plain reading of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 had produced two diametrically opposing-yet plausible-positions, the appeals court said it must rely on the FCC’s interpretation.
“Both readings of the statute are plausible. Accordingly, we must defer to the agency’s proffered interpretation if that interpretation is based on permissible construction of the statute,” the 9th Circuit said.
The 9th Circuit’s decision gave PCIA the opportunity again to ask the FCC to enforce its rules on paging interconnection.
“I implore the FCC to enforce its existing rules and quickly resolve a number of interconnection complaints by paging carriers against LECs that have been pending for more than a year. Certain LECs have dragged their heels for far too long on this issue. They must be held accountable for their actions,” Kitchen said.
The FCC is expected to issue decisions on a number of paging interconnection complaints shortly.
