California v. Federal Communications Commission

4 F.3d 1505
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 23, 1993
DocketNos. 91-70336, 91-70040, 91-70164 and 91-70302
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 4 F.3d 1505 (California v. Federal Communications Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
California v. Federal Communications Commission, 4 F.3d 1505 (9th Cir. 1993).

Opinion

SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge:

OVERVIEW

MCI Corporation and the State of California petition for review of four FCC orders approving access arrangements, known as Open Network Architecture (ONA), to the telephone transmission network.1 MCI and the numerous supporting intervenors2 (collectively referred to as MCI), are all competitors of the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) in providing “enhanced services” to telephone customers based on rapidly expanding computer technology. They are concerned about gaining equal access to the telephone communications network, controlled by the BOCs as regulated regional monopolies, in the aftermath of the break up of AT & T.

MCI is concerned that the orders do not provide sufficient protection from the BOCs’ possible discrimination against competitors in the face of impending elimination of the structural separation of the BOCs’ basic telephone services from their own enhanced telecommunications services. MCI contends that the FCC, by approving these orders, has violated the Administrative Procedure Act both by departing without adequate explanation from prior policy and by refusing to consider evidence of the inadequacy of ONA, as adopted, to prevent discrimination.

The FCC defends the orders on the ground that there has been no unexplained substantive departure from previously approved ONA concepts which were always viewed as evolutionary. We hold that these orders do not in and of themselves violate the APA because the FCC has not implemented any significant, unexplained departure from prior ONA policy. We emphasize that we do [1507]*1507not consider any issue as to whether ONA, as adopted in these orders, adequately safeguards against discrimination in the event of structural separation.

In the California petitions, the State of California and the Public Utilities Commission, also supported by intervenors3 seek review of those aspects of the orders that require federal tariffing of certain services the BOCs offer to the enhanced-service providers. The FCC ordered federal tariffs of services that are technically compatible with interstate use. California contends that the federal tariff provision violates section 2(b)(1) of the Fed.Com.Act, 47 U.S.C. § 152(b)(l)(2), because the FCC lacks jurisdiction to regulate services which are used only in connection with intrastate service, regardless of whether such services are technically compatible with interstate use. We hold that the orders under review establish a federal tariff for potential interstate services and do not regulate intrastate communications.

We recognize the states’ concern that, because the states’ rates for intrastate services offset other costs, state rates will be higher than federal tariffs, and customers may attempt to use the federal tariff for intrastate as well as interstate communications. The potential problem of tariff shopping, however, cannot deprive the FCC of jurisdiction to regulate services based on potential interstate use. If the tariff is not established until after interstate use becomes a reality, the practical effect will be the imposition of the higher, state regulated intrastate rates to those interstate services within the jurisdiction of the FCC under Federal law.

We therefore deny the petitions for review.

I. The MCI Petition

Background

Much of the background of these controversies and explanation of the concepts involved is contained in California v. FCC (California I), 905 F.2d 1217 (9th Cir.1990). There we reviewed the FCC’s comprehensive proceeding known as Computer III4 in which the FCC determined that the regional BOCs would no longer have to maintain corporate, structural separation between their common carrier, regulated, basic service operations and their provision of unregulated, enhanced services. In California I, we granted review and remanded, holding that “the FCC’s substitution of nonstructural safeguards for the federal structural separation requirements to which the BOCs were subject was unlawfully arbitrary and capricious.” Id. at 1246. Three of the orders before us in this proceeding were issued after Computer III but before our decision in California I. The fourth order under review was issued after California I and reaffirmed the three prior orders.

Following issuance of all’ four of these orders, the FCC issued a new ordér approving the lifting of structural separation. MCI’s petition for review of that order has been filed in this court but was not briefed at the time that this matter was heard. That order is not before us.

We here briefly summarize the history of this litigation as explained in California I.

In the 1960s, a new industry based upon the rapidly advancing technology of the telephone and the computer began to develop. The key services, “enhanced services,” depended on the use of existing telephone transmission facilities to reach their customers. Examples of these types of services include “[djatabase services, in which a customer dials a number to obtain access to stored information, such as Dow Jones News, Lexis, and ‘Dial It’ sports scores.” See California I, 905 F.2d at 1233 n. 3. The sole access to these transmission facilities was and continues to be controlled by regulated telephone monopolies, the divested Bell Operating Companies. Because of this depen[1508]*1508dence, the Federal Communications Commission faced new regulatory problems in ensuring that the enhanced service industry could develop and stay competitive against regulat.ed monopoly telephone carriers who were eager to get into the enhanced services market themselves. Specifically, the FCC was concerned that (1) monopoly carriers would gain an unfair competitive edge in the enhanced service industry by discriminating in favor of their own enhanced services when providing access to the telephone transmission facilities, and (2) that carriers would exploit their monopolies over the telephone industry by cross-subsidization: passing on the costs of their enhanced services to -regular telephone ratepayers who are required to use the carriers because of their monopoly over local phone services.

In order to deal with these two problems, the FCC, in its first two computer inquiries5 (Computer I & Computer II), required regulated monopoly telephone carriers offering enhanced services to form separate corporate subsidiaries. This “structural separation” was to be the principal means of preventing cross-subsidization and discriminatory access. Through subsequent regulatory and legal developments, including the divestiture of AT & T from the Bell Operating Companies, the structural separation requirement was held to be applicable only to the BOCs. This was the result of the FCC’s findings that the post-divestiture BOCs continued to hold monopoly power over access to telecommunications' transmission facilities.

The structural separation requirement imposed by Computer II forced the BOCs to produce and market enhanced services independent of their basic telephone services.

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4 F.3d 1505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/california-v-federal-communications-commission-ca9-1993.