AT&T Granted Forbearance for Cost Allocation Accounting
Here's an interesting story that demonstrates how the legacy telephony power players manage to prod the FCC to support their efforts. In this case, the FCC voted to grant AT&T forbearance to sidestep the way they';ve done cost accounting for separate business efforts.
AT&T Granted Forbearance for Cost Allocation Accounting
On April 24, 2008, the FCC granted
AT&T's request for forbearance pursuant to Section 160 of in WC
Docket No. 07-21 and 05-342 from accounting rules that assigned costs
for the regional bell operating companies (RBOC). The FCC's cost
assignment accounting rules were created to ensure that the monopoly
regulated side of the RBOC business was not improperly subsidizing the
unregulated side of the business - for example the wireless or Internet
operations. The rules were also used in rate of return regulation.
AT&T asked for relief from the requirements of various sections of
the Telecommunications Act related to cost accounting including section
220(a)(2), section 32.23 (nonregulated activities), section 32.27
(transactions with affiliates), Part 64, Subpart I (allocation of
costs), Part 36 (jurisdictional separations procedures), and Part 69,
Subparts D and E (cost apportionment).
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