VZ Wholesale Now Offering De-Tariffed High-Capacity Broadband Services

Khali Henerson in Phone+ mag reports that "Verizon Partner Solutions, the entity formed from the combination of MCI Inc. and Verizon’s legacy wholesale groups, said it is beginning to enter commercial agreements with its wholesale customers on products for which it recently received regulatory relief..... By taking no action, the FCC on March 19 allowed Verizon’s request for regulatory relief on its packet-switched broadband services to go into effect. The move was blasted by the competitive industry association, COMPTEL, which said “competition and consumers are now at the mercy of Verizon's financial self-interest.” Effective immediately, the company is offering private carriage agreements for the services covered in the forbearance petition. These include frame relay, ATM, IP and Ethernet and SONET services above the DS3 capacity level. Lew said he expects the services to be de-tariffed over the next 90 days."