FCC Establishes Separate Price Cap Basket for Video Dialtone Services, Exceeding 5% Threshold

Summary

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a new rule requiring local exchange carriers (LECs) to segregate video dialtone costs and revenues from those for telephony service, effective immediately, in response to a request from the Commission to review the performance of LECs under price cap regulation, following a proposal by the FCC to create a separate price cap basket for LEC video dialtone services, which was first proposed in February 1995, and a notice of proposed rulemaking issued on October 20, 1994, and a Memorandum Opinion and Order issued on the same day, concluding that the basic video dialtone offerings of LECs would be subject to the existing price cap rules, and a Further Notice to be issued to obtain comment on the specific level for the de minimis threshold as well as on the procedures for allocating costs to the video dialtone basket.