Opinion ID: 698322
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Interexchange Carriers

Text: 3 In its 1983 Access Order, the Commission held that there was no rational justification for the disparate nature of the access services and rates that the LECs were then offering to different IXCs. See MTS and WATS Market Structure, Third Report and Order, CC Docket No. 78-72, 93 FCC 2d 241 (1983) (Access Order ), modified on recon., 97 FCC 2d 682 (1983), modified on further recon., 97 FCC 2d 834 (1984), aff'd in principal part and remanded in part, Nat'l Ass'n of Regulatory Utility Comm'rs v. FCC, 737 F.2d 1095 (D.C.Cir.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1227, 105 S.Ct. 1224, 84 L.Ed.2d 364 (1985), modified on further recon., 99 FCC 2d 708 (1984), aff'd, American Tel. and Tel. Co. v. FCC, 832 F.2d 1285 (D.C.Cir.1987), modified on further recon., 101 F.2d 1222 (1985), further recon. denied, 102 FCC 2d 849 (1985). Specifically, the Commission concluded that a single, uniform, and nondiscriminatory structure for interstate access tariffs covering those services that make identical or similar use of access facilities is required by the Communications Act. Id. at 250. Accordingly, the Commission prescribed the rate elements, i.e., components of service, that every LEC must offer, the methodology it must use to set rates, and the type of charge (e.g., per minute, per line) it may make for each element. See 47 C.F.R. Sec. 69. 4 Under this regulatory regime, the LECs have filed with the Commission tariffs offering access service to the IXCs in so-called feature groups. A feature group bundles the basic rate elements set out in 49 C.F.R. Sec. 69 together with specific features that the IXCs tend to find appropriate and useful. Because these feature group offerings are relatively uniform across LECs, the IXCs have been able to develop and use automated ordering, auditing, and payment systems for their purchase of local access services. In order to preserve this convenience, the IXCs strongly oppose any measure that would facilitate the abolition of feature groups.