Opinion ID: 2623481
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Iowa I

Text: Shortly before GCI sought to compete with ACS, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) promulgated a rule allocating the burden of proof in rural exemption proceedings to the incumbent local exchange carrier. [19] The regulation provided: Upon receipt of a bona fide request for interconnection, services, or access to unbundled network elements, a rural telephone company must prove to the state commission that the rural telephone company should be entitled ... to continued exemption from the Telecommunications Act's interconnection requirements. [20] Three months before APUC held the initial hearing in this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated this rule in Iowa Utilities Board v. Federal Communications Commission ( Iowa I ), reasoning that the FCC exceeded its jurisdiction in promulgating the regulation. [21] The court noted: The plain meaning of subsection[ ] 251(f)(1) (governing exemptions) ... indicates that the state commissions have the exclusive authority to make these determinations, and nothing in [this provision], or in the Act generally, provides the FCC with the power to prescribe the governing standards for such determinations. [22] The Eighth Circuit also looked to the legislative history of the Telecommunications Act to support its conclusion that the FCC exceeded its authority in promulgating 47 C.F.R. § 51.405(a): Congress rejected both a Senate bill and a House bill that gave the FCC concurrent jurisdiction with state commissions to administer the exemption and waiver provisions. It would be unreasonable to infer from subsection 251(d) or the other general rulemaking provisions cited by the FCC that Congress intended to put the Commissionthe agency it decided to exclude from the exemption processin a position to dictate the substantive standards governing the exemption process.[ [23] ] The clear guidance that the FCC had provided through its regulation 47 C.F.R. § 51.405(a) therefore no longer existed when APUC first addressed this case. In the first hearing, APUC assigned the burden of proof to GCI. APUC denied GCI's petition to terminate ACS's rural exemptions on January 8, 1998, and GCI appealed APUC's decision to the superior court.