Opinion ID: 186282
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: SBC/Ameritech's Service in Texas as of August 27, 1999

Text: 18 The second reference in paragraph 56 that requires additional explanation is its allusion to the service that SBC/Ameritech was offer[ing] in Texas as of August 27, 1999. Again, that paragraph required SBC to offer shared transport in the SBC/Ameritech Service Area within the Ameritech States under terms and conditions... that are substantially similar to (or more favorable than) the most favorable terms SBC/Ameritech offers to telecommunications carriers in Texas as of August 27, 1999. Merger Order, App. C ¶ 56. 19 The scope of SBC's offer[ings] as of that date is complicated by a dispute in which it was embroiled at the time with the Texas Public Utility Commission. The dispute was over the scope of SBC's contractual obligation to provide shared transport to two CLECs, Sage Telecom and Birch Telecom of Texas, Ltd. See Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture, 17 FCC Rcd 1397 ¶ 9 (2002) ( NAL ). In particular, the disagreement concerned SBC's contractual duty to provide the two CLECs shared-transport service for intra-Local Access and Transport Area (LATA) toll calls. LATAs are service areas within which, but not beyond, the Bell operating companies-one of the operating companies divested from AT&T in the early 1980s as a result of antitrust litigation-were authorized to provide telephone service under the decree that the litigation produced. At the beginning of 1999, SBC had been providing such service to Sage and Birch under agreements with those companies. Id. However, SBC interpreted its agreement with Sage and Birch to authorize SBC to stop providing such service (for reasons not relevant here), and announced that it intended to do so. 20 Sage and Birch disagreed with SBC and in April complained to the Texas Public Utility Commission. That same month, a panel of Texas PUC arbiters temporarily enjoined SBC from carrying out its plan to stop providing shared-transport service for intraLATA toll calls to Sage and Birch, pending its resolution of the dispute. This injunction was upheld in November 1999 (about a month after the issuance of the merger order) when the arbitration panel ruled that SBC's agreements with Sage and Birch required SBC to provide them with shared- transport service for intraLATA toll calls. NAL ¶ 11. The full Texas PUC affirmed the arbitration panel's decision the next month. Id.