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Updated 04/10/01 FCC Denies Ameritech’s
Petition for Forbearance The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied Ameritech’s petition for forbearance from applying Section 275(a) of the Communications Act to its alarm monitoring operations. While Ameritech was allowed to offer alarm monitoring services through companies purchased before November 30, 1995, Ameritech and any of its affiliates were forbidden from acquiring any additional "equity interest in, or obtain(ing) financial control of, any unaffiliated alarm monitoring service entity" until February 8, 2001 under Section 275(a)(2). After the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) won a court of appeals victory rejecting Ameritech’s limited view of the statute, Ameritech asked the FCC not to enforce—"to forbear" from—Section 275(a). Had the FCC approved Ameritech’s petition for forbearance, Ameritech would have been exempt from the acquisition restrictions set forth in Section 275(a)(2). The AICC worked hard to fight this petition on the basis that the FCC should not second guess a judgement made by Congress. The AICC argued that nothing had changed since Congress considered this question and that forbearing in this situation would have amounted to an unlawful delegation of legislative authority by Congress. Based upon arguments made by the AICC, the FCC determined that forbearance would be contrary to the public interest. The Commission concluded that Congress had made a "policy adjustment" to limit RBOC activities for five years and that forbearance would contradict that policy determination. According to FCC Chairman Kennard, Ameritech "did not meet the statutory standard for forbearance" and did not show any "change in circumstances that would undercut the congressional rationale for this recently enacted, targeted statutory provision with an explicit short-term expiration date." "This is a tremendous victory for the AICC and the alarm monitoring industry," said Steve Augustino (Kelley, Drye, & Warren), AICC’s legal counsel. "We are very satisfied that the Commission has finally put to rest Ameritech’s objections to the statute. We are looking forward to the Commission acting promptly to return conditions in the alarm industry to those envisioned by Congress when it formulated Section 275(a) of the Communications Act," added Augustino. q |
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