PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Bell operating companies may make and sell telecommunications equipment only if the Federal Communications Commission has allowed them to offer interLATA services under section 271(d). They may work closely with equipment makers on design, do research, and make royalty deals. Each company must file and keep current with the FCC full information about protocols and technical rules for connecting to its network, must not release that information until it is filed, and must give planned deployment information to carriers that interconnect with it. When buying equipment, they must treat unrelated suppliers fairly, decide on contracts based on objective factors like price and quality, not block sales to local exchange carriers, and protect any proprietary information used in procurement. The FCC has the same enforcement powers over these rules as it does over common carriers and can make more rules to stop discrimination or cross-subsidies. “Manufacturing” is defined as in the AT&T Consent Decree. Entities that set standards or certify equipment must protect owners’ proprietary information and follow firewalls and safeguards if they or their affiliates also manufacture. A certifying entity may only have a separate affiliate manufacture a class of equipment if it did certification work on that class in the prior 18 months. That separate affiliate must keep separate books, facilities, and employees and may not jointly manufacture with the certifier. Standard-setting groups that serve an “industry-wide” market (carriers with at least 30% of U.S. access lines as of February 8, 1996) must use a public, open process for creating standards, use published and auditable criteria for certification, and not favor their own products. If no dispute process is agreed, the FCC had to set one within 90 days after February 8, 1996; that process must let a funding party get a decision within 30 days after filing a dispute and allows filing within 15 days after receiving a response to comments. The FCC must decide within 90 days on requests to end the safeguards for a particular activity when there are commercially viable alternative sources. Specific affiliate rules include equity thresholds of 5% and 1% as described for Bell Communications Research.

Title 47, §273

Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Authorization

A Bell operating company may manufacture and provide telecommunications equipment, and manufacture customer premises equipment, if the Commission authorizes that Bell operating company or any Bell operating company affiliate to provide interLATA services under section 271(d) of this title, subject to the requirements of this section and the regulations prescribed thereunder, except that neither a Bell operating company nor any of its affiliates may engage in such manufacturing in conjunction with a Bell operating company not so affiliated or any of its affiliates.

(b)Collaboration; research and royalty agreements

(1)Collaboration

Subsection (a) shall not prohibit a Bell operating company from engaging in close collaboration with any manufacturer of customer premises equipment or telecommunications equipment during the design and development of hardware, software, or combinations thereof related to such equipment.

(2)Certain research arrangements; royalty agreements

Subsection (a) shall not prohibit a Bell operating company from—

(A)engaging in research activities related to manufacturing, and

(B)entering into royalty agreements with manufacturers of telecommunications equipment.

(c)Information requirements

(1)Information on protocols and technical requirements

Each Bell operating company shall, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commission, maintain and file with the Commission full and complete information with respect to the protocols and technical requirements for connection with and use of its telephone exchange service facilities. Each such company shall report promptly to the Commission any material changes or planned changes to such protocols and requirements, and the schedule for implementation of such changes or planned changes.

(2)Disclosure of information

A Bell operating company shall not disclose any information required to be filed under paragraph (1) unless that information has been filed promptly, as required by regulation by the Commission.

(3)Access by competitors to information

The Commission may prescribe such additional regulations under this subsection as may be necessary to ensure that manufacturers have access to the information with respect to the protocols and technical requirements for connection with and use of telephone exchange service facilities that a Bell operating company makes available to any manufacturing affiliate or any unaffiliated manufacturer.

(4)Planning information

Each Bell operating company shall provide, to interconnecting carriers providing telephone exchange service, timely information on the planned deployment of telecommunications equipment.

(d)Manufacturing limitations for standard-setting organizations

(1)Application to Bell Communications Research or manufacturers

Bell Communications Research, Inc., or any successor entity or affiliate—

(A)shall not be considered a Bell operating company or a successor or assign of a Bell operating company at such time as it is no longer an affiliate of any Bell operating company; and

(B)notwithstanding paragraph (3), shall not engage in manufacturing telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment as long as it is an affiliate of more than 1 otherwise unaffiliated Bell operating company or successor or assign of any such company.

Nothing in this subsection prohibits Bell Communications Research, Inc., or any successor entity, from engaging in any activity in which it is lawfully engaged on February 8, 1996. Nothing provided in this subsection shall render Bell Communications Research, Inc., or any successor entity, a common carrier under this subchapter. Nothing in this subsection restricts any manufacturer from engaging in any activity in which it is lawfully engaged on February 8, 1996.

(2)Proprietary information

Any entity which establishes standards for telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment, or generic network requirements for such equipment, or certifies telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment, shall be prohibited from releasing or otherwise using any proprietary information, designated as such by its owner, in its possession as a result of such activity, for any purpose other than purposes authorized in writing by the owner of such information, even after such entity ceases to be so engaged.

(3)Manufacturing safeguards

(A)Except as prohibited in paragraph (1), and subject to paragraph (6), any entity which certifies telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment manufactured by an unaffiliated entity shall only manufacture a particular class of telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment for which it is undertaking or has undertaken, during the previous 18 months, certification activity for such class of equipment through a separate affiliate.

(B)Such separate affiliate shall—

(i)maintain books, records, and accounts separate from those of the entity that certifies such equipment, consistent with generally acceptable accounting principles;

(ii)not engage in any joint manufacturing activities with such entity; and

(iii)have segregated facilities and separate employees with such entity.

(C)Such entity that certifies such equipment shall—

(i)not discriminate in favor of its manufacturing affiliate in the establishment of standards, generic requirements, or product certification;

(ii)not disclose to the manufacturing affiliate any proprietary information that has been received at any time from an unaffiliated manufacturer, unless authorized in writing by the owner of the information; and

(iii)not permit any employee engaged in product certification for telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment to engage jointly in sales or marketing of any such equipment with the affiliated manufacturer.

(4)Standard-setting entities

Any entity that is not an accredited standards development organization and that establishes industry-wide standards for telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment, or industry-wide generic network requirements for such equipment, or that certifies telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment manufactured by an unaffiliated entity, shall—

(A)establish and publish any industry-wide standard for, industry-wide generic requirement for, or any substantial modification of an existing industry-wide standard or industry-wide generic requirement for, telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment only in compliance with the following procedure—

(i)such entity shall issue a public notice of its consideration of a proposed industry-wide standard or industry-wide generic requirement;

(ii)such entity shall issue a public invitation to interested industry parties to fund and participate in such efforts on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis, administered in such a manner as not to unreasonably exclude any interested industry party;

(iii)such entity shall publish a text for comment by such parties as have agreed to participate in the process pursuant to clause (ii), provide such parties a full opportunity to submit comments, and respond to comments from such parties;

(iv)such entity shall publish a final text of the industry-wide standard or industry-wide generic requirement, including the comments in their entirety, of any funding party which requests to have its comments so published; and

(v)such entity shall attempt, prior to publishing a text for comment, to agree with the funding parties as a group on a mutually satisfactory dispute resolution process which such parties shall utilize as their sole recourse in the event of a dispute on technical issues as to which there is disagreement between any funding party and the entity conducting such activities, except that if no dispute resolution process is agreed to by all the parties, a funding party may utilize the dispute resolution procedures established pursuant to paragraph (5) of this subsection;

(B)engage in product certification for telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment manufactured by unaffiliated entities only if—

(i)such activity is performed pursuant to published criteria;

(ii)such activity is performed pursuant to auditable criteria; and

(iii)such activity is performed pursuant to available industry-accepted testing methods and standards, where applicable, unless otherwise agreed upon by the parties funding and performing such activity;

(C)not undertake any actions to monopolize or attempt to monopolize the market for such services; and

(D)not preferentially treat its own telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment, or that of its affiliate, over that of any other entity in establishing and publishing industry-wide standards or industry-wide generic requirements for, and in certification of, telecommunications equipment and customer premises equipment.

(5)Alternate dispute resolution

Within 90 days after February 8, 1996, the Commission shall prescribe a dispute resolution process to be utilized in the event that a dispute resolution process is not agreed upon by all the parties when establishing and publishing any industry-wide standard or industry-wide generic requirement for telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment, pursuant to paragraph (4)(A)(v). The Commission shall not establish itself as a party to the dispute resolution process. Such dispute resolution process shall permit any funding party to resolve a dispute with the entity conducting the activity that significantly affects such funding party’s interests, in an open, nondiscriminatory, and unbiased fashion, within 30 days after the filing of such dispute. Such disputes may be filed within 15 days after the date the funding party receives a response to its comments from the entity conducting the activity. The Commission shall establish penalties to be assessed for delays caused by referral of frivolous disputes to the dispute resolution process.

(6)Sunset

The requirements of paragraphs (3) and (4) shall terminate for the particular relevant activity when the Commission determines that there are alternative sources of industry-wide standards, industry-wide generic requirements, or product certification for a particular class of telecommunications equipment or customer premises equipment available in the United States. Alternative sources shall be deemed to exist when such sources provide commercially viable alternatives that are providing such services to customers. The Commission shall act on any application for such a determination within 90 days after receipt of such application, and shall receive public comment on such application.

(7)Administration and enforcement authority

For the purposes of administering this subsection and the regulations prescribed thereunder, the Commission shall have the same remedial authority as the Commission has in administering and enforcing the provisions of this subchapter with respect to any common carrier subject to this chapter.

(8)Definitions

For purposes of this subsection: (A)

(B)The term “generic requirement” means a description of acceptable product attributes for use by local exchange carriers in establishing product specifications for the purchase of telecommunications equipment, customer premises equipment, and software integral thereto.

(C)The term “industry-wide” means activities funded by or performed on behalf of local exchange carriers for use in providing wireline telephone exchange service whose combined total of deployed access lines in the United States constitutes at least 30 percent of all access lines deployed by telecommunications carriers in the United States as of February 8, 1996.

(D)The term “certification” means any technical process whereby a party determines whether a product, for use by more than one local exchange carrier, conforms with the specified requirements pertaining to such product.

(E)The term “accredited standards development organization” means an entity composed of industry members which has been accredited by an institution vested with the responsibility for standards accreditation by the industry.

(e)Bell operating company equipment procurement and sales

(1)Nondiscrimination standards for manufacturing

In the procurement or awarding of supply contracts for telecommunications equipment, a Bell operating company, or any entity acting on its behalf, for the duration of the requirement for a separate subsidiary including manufacturing under this chapter—

(A)shall consider such equipment, produced or supplied by unrelated persons; and

(B)may not discriminate in favor of equipment produced or supplied by an affiliate or related person.

(2)Procurement standards

Each Bell operating company or any entity acting on its behalf shall make procurement decisions and award all supply contracts for equipment, services, and software on the basis of an objective assessment of price, quality, delivery, and other commercial factors.

(3)Network planning and design

A Bell operating company shall, to the extent consistent with the antitrust laws, engage in joint network planning and design with local exchange carriers operating in the same area of interest. No participant in such planning shall be allowed to delay the introduction of new technology or the deployment of facilities to provide telecommunications services, and agreement with such other carriers shall not be required as a prerequisite for such introduction or deployment.

(4)Sales restrictions

Neither a Bell operating company engaged in manufacturing nor a manufacturing affiliate of such a company shall restrict sales to any local exchange carrier of telecommunications equipment, including software integral to the operation of such equipment and related upgrades.

(5)Protection of proprietary information

A Bell operating company and any entity it owns or otherwise controls shall protect the proprietary information submitted for procurement decisions from release not specifically authorized by the owner of such information.

(f)Administration and enforcement authority

For the purposes of administering and enforcing the provisions of this section and the regulations prescribed thereunder, the Commission shall have the same authority, power, and functions with respect to any Bell operating company or any affiliate thereof as the Commission has in administering and enforcing the provisions of this subchapter with respect to any common carrier subject to this chapter.

(g)Additional rules and regulations

The Commission may prescribe such additional rules and regulations as the Commission determines are necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, and otherwise to prevent discrimination and cross-subsidization in a Bell operating company’s dealings with its affiliate and with third parties.

(h)“Manufacturing” defined

As used in this section, the term “manufacturing” has the same meaning as such term has under the AT&T Consent Decree.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsecs. (d)(7), (e)(1), and (f), was in the original “this Act”, meaning act June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, known as the Communications Act of 1934, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see section 609 of this title and Tables.

§273 Manufacturing by Bell Operating Companies

Summary

Title 47, §273

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Citations & Metadata