FCC Head Wants Broad Reporting Relief for Large Phone Cos

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said Friday that he wants to get rid of almost all reporting requirements imposed on large phone companies that allow regulators to monitor their actions.

In response to a request from AT&T for permission to stop collecting data on service quality and customer complaints, Martin has proposed giving the same relief to all other companies that must abide by those rules.

Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications International are among the incumbent phone companies that have petitioned the FCC for similar waivers.

Martin's proposal to deal with all of those requests at once is being circulated among the other commissioners on the five-member body and must receive a vote by Saturday. If the FCC doesn't vote, AT&T's more limited request will be granted automatically.

"Many of these reporting requirements are certainly outmoded," Martin said. "They were put in at a time when companies were being regulated in a monopoly."

Martin said he wants to readjust how the FCC collects data on all telecom firms, and he appears to be using the AT&T petition as a springboard to start that debate.

"We can't justify keeping these current rules in place," Martin said. "I would be willing to start a process to ask, 'What are the requirements that would be applied to the entire industry?'"

Martin said his proposal would retain a requirement that companies report on their business lines, but he wants to do away with the other data points.

The proposal is likely to meet with some protest. Earlier this year, the FCC relieved AT&T of a requirement that it disclose some of its costs to regulators, agreeing with AT&T that the requirement was burdensome and overbroad. That ruling was voted out on a 3-2, party-line basis.

Smaller phone companies also want the reporting to continue. They say the data, which is public, is the only way to learn about the incumbent giants with which they are competing. "It's the only window we have into their actual numbers," said Mary Albert, assistant general counsel for Comptel, a lobby group representing small phone companies.

AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris said his company shares Martin's goal. "Our petition seeks to update the FCC's data collection methods by removing outdated data collection rules, by filing information that is relevant to today's marketplace, and by not limiting the reporting requirements to just a few providers such as AT&T," he said.

Martin said Friday afternoon that he isn't sure he has majority votes to approve his proposed response to AT&T.

-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; fawn.johnson@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 6th September 2008