NEWS
Federal Communications Commission
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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.
See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
September 18, 2013 Matthew Berry, 202-418-2005
Email:  Matthew.Berry@fcc.gov
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
ON BUREAU ADOPTION OF SPECIAL ACCESS DATA COLLECTION
One year ago, the Commission suspended pricing flexibility for special access services with the 
promise of “final conclusions on the need for overall reform of the special access marketplace to occur in 
2013.”
1
  That was an aggressive timetable then, and it is thus no surprise that we have fallen eight months 
behind schedule already.
2
  Today’s Order submitting the data collection to the Office of Management and 
Budget is a step in the right direction, and I welcome the Wireline Competition Bureau’s efforts to reduce 
the burden of the data collection (the original estimated burden of the collection was 856,614 hours
3
).
Nevertheless, I am concerned that one aspect of the Order exceeds the authority the Commission 
delegated to the Bureau: the decision to collect some potential competition data on a census-block rather 
than a location-by-location basis.  Last December’s Data Collection Order required competitive providers 
to report facilities “capable of” providing dedicated service so that the Commission could get a full view 
of market competition—both actual and potential.
4
  Indeed, one key reason I supported last December’s 
data collection order was that it “incorporate[d] not just existing competition but also potential 
competition into our analysis,” including “information about facilities capable of providing dedicated 
service as well as competitive offerings regardless of the facilities used.”
5
And yet the Order exempts cable operators (but not other competitive providers) from reporting 
certain in-place but out-of-service facilities “capable of” providing dedicated service.
6
  This new 
                                                          
1
Special Access for Price Cap Local Exchange Carriers; AT&T Corporation Petition for Rulemaking to Reform 
Regulation of Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier Rates for Interstate Special Access Services, WC Docket No. 05-
25, RM-10593, Report and Order, 27 FCC Rcd 10557, 10561 n.16 (2012).
2
Id. at 10653 (Statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai) (explaining the data collection would need to be submitted to 
the Office of Management and Budget by January 2013 for any chance of reaching final conclusions in 2013).
3
FCC, Information Collection(s) Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, Comments 
Requested, 78 Fed. Reg. 9911 (2013), available at http://go.usa.gov/DNMQ.
4
Special Access for Price Cap Local Exchange Carriers; AT&T Corporation Petition for Rulemaking to Reform 
Regulation of Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier Rates for Interstate Special Access Services, WC Docket No. 05-
25, RM-10593, Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 27 FCC Rcd 16318, 16331, para. 31 
(2012) (Data Collection Order).
5
Id. at 16442 (Statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai), available at http://go.usa.gov/DNMY.
6
Compare Order at para. 26 (“[Cable operators within their franchise areas] must report those Locations with 
Connections owned or leased as an IRU that are connected to a Node (i.e., headend) that has been upgraded or was 
built to provide Metro Ethernet (or its equivalent) service . . . regardless of the service provided over the Connection
or whether the Connection is idle or in-service.”), with para. 27 (“For Locations with facilities that are not linked to 
(continued . . .)
exemption is not “consistent with the terms of” the Data Collection Order,
7
which made clear that the 
Bureau should collect data about all communications pathways with the “capability to provide a dedicated 
service”—no matter “the medium used (e.g., whether it is fiber, copper, or coaxial cable).”
8
  To be sure, 
the claim is that this potential competition data will nonetheless be gathered at the census-block level 
“where the cable system operator reports making broadband service available,”
9
but the Data Collection 
Order specifically contemplated and rejected that possibility:  “[I]t would not be consistent with this 
Report and Order for the Bureau to amend the data collection to require census block information rather 
than location-by-location information . . . about such facilities.”
10
When we move forward with our review of the enterprise data services market, I hope we have 
data “sufficient to analyze the marketplace fully and complete this proceeding.”
11
  But I fear this Order
presages a different direction.  An incomplete picture of competition in this market is likely to lead to 
inappropriate regulatory intervention.  I cannot support that outcome, and I doubt the courts, providers, 
and ultimately enterprise customers themselves will either.
(. . . continued from previous page)                                                           
a Node capable of providing Metro Ethernet (or its equivalent), cable system operators [within their franchise areas] 
must report in-service Connections that were used during the relevant reporting period to provide a Dedicated 
Service or a service that incorporates a Dedicated Service . . . .”).
7
Data Collection Order, 27 FCC Rcd at 16340, para. 52.
8
Id. at 16325 n.38.  The Order does not suggest that the exempted connections are not “capable of” providing 
dedicated service, only that the Bureau is “particularly interested in Connections that have been upgraded to 
business class Metro Ethernet (or its equivalent),” Order at para. 26, and acknowledges that facilities not linked to 
upgraded nodes are “capable of” providing dedicated service since cable operators must still report “in-service 
Connections that were used during the relevant reporting period to provide a Dedicated Service,” id. at para. 27.
9
Order at para. 27.
10
Data Collection Order, 27 FCC Rcd at 16340 n.112.
11
Id. at 16442 (Statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai).