FCC Calms Landlord-CLEC Feud

Communications Today, Oct 16, 2000

The Federal Communications Commission emerged unscathed Thursday after taking action in the battle over telecom carriers' access to multi-tenant buildings.

Caught between salivating CLECs anxious to get their pliers on ILEC-controlled wiring in multi-unit buildings, and Constitution-waving landlords guarding their doorways, the FCC acted Thursday to eliminate what it described as "bottlenecks to competition" in those buildings by setting mandates for carriers and extracting promises from landlords.

In a 4-1 ruling, the commission decreed that ILECs and utility companies must share their equipment and rights-of-way with competing carriers and cable companies, and barred all telecom carriers from signing exclusive contracts with building owners or landlords.

The FCC also received pledges from the Real Access Alliance, a coalition of 11 trade associations representing over one million building owners and operators, to increase telecom access to their buildings.

"Tenants in multiunit buildings will now be able to make more of their own choices, and telecommunications providers will find it easier to offer more choices," said FCC Commissioner William Kennard in a statement released after the commission's open hearing Thursday.

Building owners and CLECs both lauded the commission's action, saying it would provide consumers with more choice in telecom services, while increasing competition and presumably lowering prices.

"The FCC should be congratulated for taking a very prudent, targeted step to encourage consumers to get the services they need from building owners," said Roger Platt, the general counsel for the building owners' coalition, the Real Access Alliance.

Winstar Communications [WCII] CEO William J. Rouhana, Jr. hailed the FCC's action as a milestone in the broadband services industry. "This decision will not only shorten the time it takes to obtain access rights, but it will also allow us to be more efficient in building out our network."

Winstar says it has obtained more than 11,000 building access rights and promised to work closely with the real estate industry to provide tenants with more broadband services.

Amid all the backslapping and good vibes, however, was a note of caution. The FCC made clear to building owners that it will continue to monitor the situation. Kennard said that further rulings directed at the landlords could be necessary if the industry does not keep its word to allow access to all carriers. In the past, some landlords have tried to charge companies like Winstar entrance fees as high as $50,000, plus $1200 per month to stay in their buildings.

"We will take careful note of the implementation of these commitments and, additionally, will seek comment on the state of the market and whether the steps that we take today will be sufficient to encourage long lasting competition - or whether, in the future, it will be necessary to adopt a nondiscriminatory building access requirement," said Kennard.

Platt expects the real estate industry to keep its pledge, if only to please customers. He said that it makes good business sense for landlords to offer their tenants a wide choice of communications services because, otherwise, they may find new homes.

"That's going to result in an empty building," said Platt. "Because, the building owners are not going to succeed if their tenants don't succeed."

Bruce Sullivan