With respect to each issue, parties are asked to specify the bases upon which they believe the Commission can make the findings required to meet the statutory criteria for forbearance. Comments are due November 17, 2000. Reply comments are due December 4, 2000. IB Docket No. I applaud the Commission's decision to detariff the vast majority of international telecommunications services.
Tariffs are anachronistic regulatory tools that have outlived their usefulness.
Eliminating the burdensome requirement that companies file monumental tariff documents and that the FCC reviews them is a step in the right direction. Moreover, detariffing eliminates the filed rate doctrine defense against many consumer claims and moves the telecommunications marketplace closer to a fully competitive traditional open market with regulation as the exception rather than the rule. Nonetheless, some aspects of today's Notice trouble me. Fundamentally, the Notice is designed to create symmetry with the 1997 decision to de-tariff domestic long distance service that was recently affirmed by the Court of Appeals. I understand the goal of symmetry, however I cannot support extending antiquated regulatory requirements to international services simply because we imposed them domestically.