Technologie i telekomunikacja · 23.10.1998

Policy and Rules Concerning the Interstate, Interexchange Marketplace

The Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking examines restrictions that limit a common carrier's ability to bundle certain goods and services together and offer such bundles to the public. The goods and services at issue include telecommunications services, enhanced services, and customer premises equipment (CPE). Our rules currently prohibit telecommunications carriers from bundling telecommunications services with CPE, and place restrictions on the bundling of telecommunications services with enhanced services. Our current restrictions not only prevent carriers from offering distinct goods and/or services only on a bundled basis, but also prohibit carriers from offering ``package discounts,'' which enable customers to purchase an array of products in a package at a lower price than the individual products could be purchased separately. In this proceeding, we examine whether market conditions have changed sufficient to warrant lifting our restrictions on the bundling of CPE and enhanced services with basic telecommunications services.