Federal Communications Commission FCC 08-168
STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL
Re:  Qwest Petition for Forbearance Under 47 U.S.C. § 160(c) from Title II and Computer 
Inquiry Rules with Respect to Broadband Services, WC Docket No. 06-125
I am pleased to support this order to streamline regulation of the enterprise broadband market and 
bring parity to those providers of broadband services.
With this grant of Qwest’s petition for forbearance from regulating its existing enterprise service 
offerings, we are bringing Qwest into regulatory parity with other similarly situated price cap 
carriers.  This action extends the de-regulatory framework for Qwest’s business broadband 
services.  It also ensures that the consumer protection and competition promotion measures that 
we adopted for AT&T, Embarq, Frontier and Citizens remain in place. 
While the Order grants relief to Qwest, it does not forbear from existing regulation of the TDM-
based, DS-1 and DS-3 special access services most heavily relied upon by many enterprise users, 
wireless carriers and competitive local exchange carriers.  As competition in the broadband 
market continues to grow, especially through the deployment of new wireless technologies, less 
regulation should be required.  
I note, however, that the Commission still has inadequate information to determine whether 
allegations that competition is scarce in certain segments of the special access market have merit.  
I will continue to work to ensure that these questions are fully explored in the Special Access 
proceeding after a more granular record has been established through detailed mapping of 
business broadband facilities.