Opinion ID: 186018
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: 46 Finally, Z-Tel maintains the Commission erred in finding Verizon presented evidence sufficient to justify a determination that its wholesale billing complied with the requirements of § 271. Initially we note that the parties disagree about the standard of review. The Commission lays claim to the special deference we gave it in reviewing the § 271 proceeding in AT&T Corp., 220 F.3d at 616; Z-Tel implicitly disagrees by arguing there is not substantial evidence to support the grant of the Application. 47 We need not decide whether the special deference to which we referred in AT&T Corp. is applicable in this case because the Commission's decision is supported by substantial evidence, conventionally conceived. The Commission based its decision to grant Verizon's application upon the February through June trend data, Order ¶ ¶ 26-27, the PWC and KPMG studies, id. ¶ ¶ 31-36, and evidence of Verizon's software fixes and manual review process, id. ¶ 38. These submissions provide substantial evidence supporting the Commission's finding that Verizon is able to deliver a BOS BDT bill that is readable, accurate, and auditable. The February through June data showed that the dollar value of all disputes submitted by CLECs, expressed as a percentage of the dollar value of their bills, decreased from approximately 27% in February to approximately 2% in June. The May and June dispute rates compared favorably to the rates in New York, where Verizon had already received § 271 authority. Moreover, the rate for certain types of errors in what the Commission identified as Verizon's historic problem areas, id. ¶ 26, also declined — indeed, to amounts that the Commission reasonably found were relatively nominal both in dollar value and as a percentage of current charges billed. Id. Verizon's software fixes and manual review process provided an explanation for this trend of marked improvement and suggested it was likely to continue. Finally, the third-party studies indicated that Verizon's BOS BDT data were readable and auditable. 48 Z-Tel does not challenge the Commission's findings headon. Instead it argues that (1) the Commission ignored problems that would make it more difficult for CLECs to audit their bills; (2) the PWC studies should not have been given significant weight because their results were neither detailed nor unequivocal; and (3) the avalanche of critical comments that it and other CLECs submitted outweighed any favorable data submitted by Verizon. None of these arguments amounts to anything. As for the first point, the Commission addressed the auditing problems (in ¶ 39 of the Order ), agreeing with CLECs that at that time a precise accounting for all possible charges was not possible, but noting that the amounts involved ... [were] nominal and [had] been consistently decreasing. The second point goes principally to the weight of the evidence, a matter peculiarly within the province of the Commission, which resolved it reasonably. See Order ¶ ¶ 35-36. The third point is essentially a challenge to the Commission's decision to weigh recent data more heavily than older data — a reasonable approach if ever there was one. 49 Z-Tel's final effort to exclude the February through June trend data is its claim the Commission's rules require any data submitted to the agency be supported by an affidavit and accompanied by an explanation of how they were produced. See Updated Filing Requirements, 16 F.C.C.R. at 6926. The February through June trend data were contained in Verizon's August 17 submission, an unsworn letter signed by Dee May, Verizon's Executive Director for Federal Regulatory matters. 50 This objection has been forfeit. There is no indication any commenter drew it to the attention of the Commission until the matter reached this court. We shall not reverse the Commission for failing to follow one of its own procedural rules when that failure was not the subject of an objection by any interested party. See 47 U.S.C. § 405(a)(2).