LANSING – Unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear its case, the Federal Communications Commission will lose its authority next week to delegate some telecommunications regulation to the Michigan Public Service Commission, but a top PSC officials said don’t look for quick changes.

But at least in Michigan, the change in federal regulation will not mean quick changes in prices or service for local telephone customers, PSC Chair Peter Lark told Gongwer News Service. Instead, it will mean negotiations between incumbent carriers and their competitors, he said.

Under the federal court ruling, the FCC is no longer permitted to allow state commissions to decide whether the incumbent providers, like SBC and Verizon, are required to provide competitors with access to their equipment through unbundled network element platform (UNE-P), a lower-cost way to lease parts of the telephone network. SBC has joined other incumbents in arguing that UNE-P rates have been set below their costs for providing the service.

To continue UNE-P service in a state under the court ruling, the FCC would have to find that the pricing system is needed to assist competition in that state. The FCC has not made any such findings because it has relegated that authority to the states.

Lark said loss of federal permission for UNE-P pricing in Michigan would not mean immediate rate increases to competitors or loss of that service because interconnection agreements between competitors and SBC, the primary target for competitors, require that any changes to the contract mandated by changes in law be negotiated and, if necessary, mediated before they can take effect.

The PSC may also have the authority under the Michigan Telecommunications Act to require UNE-P on a pricing scheme similar to that set by the FCC, Lark said.

Observers are also still anticipating the FCC to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Lark said the National Association of Regulated Utility Commissioners has asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to involve the U.S. Department of Justice in any appeal of the case. The commissioners and others argue that Justice Department involvement would add to the likelihood the high court will at least hear the case.

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