Time Warner Cable’s Facilities-Based Presence in New York Only One-Fifth the Level Reported in Omaha at Forbearance

Covad and XO Communications Cite New Evidence Showing Verizon’s UNE Forbearance Petition for New York Fails Omaha Standard

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Competitive telecommunications companies today released a new market share analysis that shows that the facilities-based market penetration level for a key Verizon competitor in the New York MSA falls far short of the level understood to have been required by the FCC to approve past requests for forbearance from key unbundling obligations.

In a filing today at the FCC, Covad and XO Communications cite data submitted by Time Warner Cable (TWC) showing that TWC has not achieved market penetration in the residential or business market in the New York MSA that even begins to approach the level of loop-based competition believed present in the Omaha MSA in 2005.

In the Omaha Forbearance Order, the FCC established a framework to judge the merits of petitions for forbearance from the Telecom Act’s Section 251(c)(3). That section of the Act sets forth the incumbent Bells’ requirements for providing unbundled network elements (UNEs) to competitors at cost-based rates. The Omaha Order specifies that any party petitioning for forbearance from Section 251(c)(3) must meet several tests. One key requirement is that the petitioner must prove that facilities-based competitors have achieved, at a minimum, at least the level of competitive market penetration that existed in Omaha at the time of the Omaha Forbearance Order. In their filing today, the competitive carrier group demonstrates that TWC has less than one fifth of the market penetration that is understood to have been required in Omaha.