Opinion ID: 770177
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Rate Integration under the Telecommunications Actof 1996

Text: 6 The Commission adopted its policy of rate integration as an exercise of its broad authority under the Communications Act to regulate carriers for the public convenience and necessity. See 47 U.S.C. § 214; Domsat II Order, 35 F.C.C.2d at 856 p 35. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996), the Congress put rate integration upon a statutory footing by adding § 254(g) to the Communications Act of 1934: 7 Within 6 months after February 8, 1996, the Commissionshall adopt rules to require ... that a provider ofinterstate interexchange telecommunications servicesshall provide such services to its subscribers in eachState at rates no higher than the rates charged to itssubscribers in any other State. 8 Although perhaps not obvious on its face, the parties agree that § 254(g) means what the Conference Report says it means: 9 New section 254(g) is intended to incorporate the polic[y]of ... rate integration of interexchange services....The conferees intend the Commission's rules ... toincorporate the policies contained in the Commission'sproceeding entitled Integration of Rates and Servicesfor the Provision of Communications by Authorized Com-mon Carriers between the United States Mainland andthe Offshore Points of Hawaii, Alaska and PuertoRico/Virgin Islands (61 FCC2d 380 (1976)).H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 104-458, at 132 (1996).