Opinion ID: 206188
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Aggregation of End-User Volume

Text: CMC also contends that the state commission violated the Act by refusing to require AT & T to allow competitors to aggregate end-user volumes in order to qualify for individualized-contract pricing. This argument is without merit because it disregards the nature of individualized contracts. CMC argues that if AT & T sells 10,000 units of service to one customer as part of a multi-factor individualized contract, AT & T must allow CMC to buy 10,000 units of service at the relatively low individualized-contract rate, identify and aggregate 10,000 distinct customers who each demand only one unit of service, and then parcel out the service among those customers at the resale rate for individualized contracts. CMC cites the FCC Local Competition Order for the proposition that restrictions on resale of volume discounts should be considered presumptively unreasonable. In the Matter of Implementation of the Local Competition Provisions in the Telecomms. Act of 1996, 11 FCC Rcd. 15499, 15971 (1996). However, that presumption would apply here only if volume were the sole factor AT & T considered when pricing its individualized contracts. Because the contracts CMC seeks to resell are based on several factors in addition to call volume, requiring AT & T to allow aggregation of end-user volume to qualify for individualized contract rates would change the nature of AT & T's retail offering and exceed AT & T's resale requirement. Where eliminating a restriction from an incumbent's retail offering would transform the offering into a different service, the incumbent is not required to offer that revised service for resale. Sw. Bell, 309 F.3d at 719-20. Were AT & T required to resell multi-factor individualized contracts based on volume requirements alone, the resold product would not be what AT & T offers its own customers. [5] Therefore, the commission did not legally have to require AT & T to permit aggregation to qualify for individualized-contract pricing.