**DISSENTING STATEMENT OF**

**COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS**

Re: *Unbundled Access to Network Elements, Review of the Section 251
Unbundling*

*Obligations of Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers*, Order on Remand

(WC Docket No. 04-313, CC Docket No. 01-338)

We are living in a new world when it comes to wireline competition. It
is not a world of my making or my choosing, and I am deeply troubled by
the conviction that this new world will be characterized by dramatic
changes that will negatively impact American consumers. In decision
after decision over the past three years, this Commission has taken
actions curbing competition and limiting consumer choices, in the
process straying far from the paradigms of competition laid out in the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Our challenge today is to craft rules that will be acceptable to the
courts and true to our statutory directives. I entered this remand
proceeding hopeful that we could reach a compromise that would ensure
some future for competition among wireline service providers and to
provide a decent future for facilities-based carriers. We have had a
long and serious dialogue over this item, extending through most of the
night and right into today. I appreciate my colleagues' willingness to
engage in this discussion and to make the effort to achieve consensus.
Unfortunately, in the final analysis, consensus eluded us. I thought we
were getting close, but we couldn\'t cross the finish line. I cannot
support the decision that resulted.

What we have in front of us effectively dismantles wireline competition.
Brick by brick, this process has been underway for some time. But
today's Order accomplishes the same feat with all the grace and finality
of a wrecking ball. No amount of rhetoric about judicially sustainable
rules and economically efficient competitors can hide the blockbuster
job this Commission has done on competition. During its tenure, the
largest long distance carriers have abandoned the residential market.
And as a result of today's decision, other carriers will follow suit. In
their wake we will face bankruptcies, job losses and customer outages.
Billions of dollars of investment capital will be stranded. And down the
road consumers will face less competition, higher rates and fewer
service choices.

After having abandoned residential competition earlier, today the
majority also hangs up on small business consumers. Small business likes
competition. It has voted with its feet for competition. In fact, the
Small Business Administration tells us that in metropolitan areas
competitive carriers serve 29 percent of small businesses. The inroads
competitive carriers have made in this community are important, because
small business is the engine of our economy. Small businesses generate
between two-thirds and three-quarters of all new jobs in this country.
They represent over 90 percent of employers and they produce over half
of the nation's private sector output. The savings they enjoy from
competitive telecommunications services go straight to the bottom line.
But the majority's action today pulls the bottom out from under small
business competition. It places restrictions on access to high-capacity
loop and transport facilities that are vital for carriers serving small
businesses. It imposes economically unsound tests. In short, it burns
the bridges competitive carriers have made in serving the small business
community.

For a Commission that has laced its decisions with praise for
facilities-based competition, today's action is a funny way of showing
its continued support. As a result of this decision there will be less
competition, less choice and higher rates. The people who pay America's
phone bills deserve better. I dissent.

Some would have us believe that this is the road we have to travel in
the wake of court decisions. Yet it is this Commission that refused to
seek review of the very court decisions they now claim constrain us.

Though I do not join this decision today, I wish to thank the Commission
staff for their hard work on this item. This proceeding---and its
predecessor---have not been easy. But throughout the Bureau has been
helpful, candid and generous with their time. I am grateful for their
devotion to the task at hand and hope that there is some well-deserved
time for rest and relaxation in the weeks ahead.