WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 20, 2025 – INCOMPAS, the competitive communications and AI infrastructure association, filed reply comments yesterday with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the Advancing IP Interconnection Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), urging the Commission to ensure a successful transition from legacy TDM networks to IP technology by establishing an IP interconnection framework and conditioning any forbearance on verifiable, enforceable safeguards that preserve competition and protect public safety.
“The technology transition is necessary and broadly supported across the industry, but the Commission must ensure public safety and competition are protected by facilitating IP interconnection,” said Christopher L. Shipley, Executive Director of Public Policy at INCOMPAS. “The record makes clear that ILECs have used prior forbearance grants to impose substantial price increases on services that competitors and their customers depend on, and that the agency’s general regulatory provisions have proven wholly inadequate to prevent this kind of monopoly pricing. Furthermore, incumbents regularly refuse to negotiate IP interconnection agreements with competitive providers putting 9-1-1 emergency call completion in jeopardy. INCOMPAS urges the Commission to preserve voice services by adopting an IP interconnection framework and conditioning forbearance on enforceable safeguards, not an arbitrary deadline that hands incumbents leverage to extract monopoly rents at the expense of competitors and the public safety community.”
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