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 Federal  Communications  Commission  FCC  03-  199 
 JOINT  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONERS  MICHAEL  J.  COPPS  AND  JONATHAN  S.  ADELSTEIN, 
 CONCURRING 
 Re:  Verizon  Telephone  Companies,  Inc.  Apparent  Liability  for  Forfeiture  (File  No.  EB-  03-  IH-  0245) 


 We  support  today’s  Notice  of  Apparent  Liability  because  it  is  an  appropriate  exercise  of  the  Commission’s  enforcement  authority.  Nonetheless,  we  only  concur  because  the  timing  of  this 
 decision  sends  the  wrong  signals  concerning  our  oversight  of  section  272  affiliates.  This  is  yet  another  illustration  of  how  the  Commission  has  fallen  short  of  its  statutory  duties  under  Section 
 272.  We  need  to  do  more  to  ensure  that  our  oversight  is  of  the  kind  and  character  that  Congress  intended. 


 Through  Section  272,  Congress  required  Bell  companies  to  provide  long  distance  and  manufacturing  services  through  a  separate  affiliate.  In  implementing  these  requirements,  the 
 Commission  concluded  that  Congress  adopted  these  safeguards  because  it  recognized  that  Bell  companies  might  still  exercise  market  power  at  the  time  they  enter  long-  distance  markets.  As 
 part  of  these  safeguards,  Congress  specifically  required  that  Bell  companies  retain  an  independent  auditor  to  review  separate  affiliate  operations  and  produce  a  public  report  evaluating  how  they 
 comply  with  the  statute  and  the  Commission’s  rules.  Congress  also  provided  that  the  long  distance  separate  affiliate  requirements  would  continue  for  three  years,  but  could  be  extended  by 
 the  Commission  by  rule  or  order. 
 On  the  three-  year  anniversary  of  its  entry  into  the  long  distance  market,  the  Commission  allowed  the  Section  272  separate  affiliate  requirement  for  Verizon  in  New  York  to  sunset.  It  did 
 so  without  a  crumb  of  analysis.  We  addressed  neither  the  New  York  Public  Service  Commission’s  concerns  that  sunset  was  premature,  nor  the  results  of  the  independent  audit  report. 
 Instead,  we  review  the  results  of  that  audit  in  today’s  decision.  This  review  takes  place  more  than  seven  months  after  the  Commission  allowed  the  sunset  of  the  New  York  Section  272  separate 
 affiliate.  This  is  backwards. 
 Despite  the  appropriateness  of  today’s  enforcement  action,  it  highlights  the  shortcomings  of  our  approach  to  section  272.  By  failing  to  use  the  statutory  audit  tool  as  part  of  a  larger 
 analysis  before  the  decision  to  sunset  is  made,  the  forfeiture  and  admonishment  we  impose  in  this  Notice  of  Apparent  Liability  are  denied  the  context  Congress  intended. 
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