Opinion ID: 781586
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: consistency with federal law

Text: 57 Pacific Bell argues that the CPUC's decision approving the arbitrated interconnection agreement between Pacific Bell and Pac-West, Decision No. 99-06-088 (June 24, 1999), is inconsistent with federal law 14 because (1) ISP-bound traffic is not local traffic under federal law, and therefore not subject to the mandatory reciprocal compensation requirements of § 251, and (2) the CPUC has no authority to impose reciprocal compensation payments on non-local traffic in the course of arbitrating a new contract. 58 Because the FCC has yet to resolve whether ISP-bound traffic is local within the scope of § 251, the CPUC's decision to enforce an arbitration agreement that subjects ISP-bound traffic to reciprocal compensation was not inconsistent with § 251. We therefore reject Appellants' argument that the CPUC exceeded its statutory authority by approving the payment of reciprocal compensation for ISP calls. 15 Indeed, following the D.C. Circuit's vacatur of its Declaratory Ruling, the FCC itself abandoned the distinction between local and interstate traffic as the basis for determining whether reciprocal compensation provisions in interconnection agreements apply to ISP-bound traffic. See FCC Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9155-57. 59 Pacific Bell also points to the same exceptions listed in § 251(g) that the FCC pointed to in its Remand Order to support its argument that the reciprocal compensation requirements of § 251(b)(5) do not apply to ISP calls. This argument, however, was explicitly rejected by the D.C. Circuit. See WorldCom, Inc., 288 F.3d at 430. Although the D.C. Circuit did not vacate the FCC Remand Order when it found that the FCC's reliance on § 251(g) [was] precluded[,] its explicit rejection of the FCC's use of § 251(g) as a justification for excluding ISP calls from reciprocal compensation provisions defeats Pacific Bell's arguments that rely on § 251(g). WorldCom, Inc., 288 F.3d at 430. Furthermore, the interim alternative payment scheme for ISP-bound traffic established in the Remand Order applies only prospectively, when existing interconnection agreements expire. FCC Remand Order, 16 F.C.C.R. at 9189; see also WorldCom, Inc., 288 F.3d at 431.