On Friday the DC Circuit once again rebuked the FCC, this time for failing to explain adequately why it denied Verizon's petition asking for relief from the sharing requirements for new broadband loops. Does the FCC want to speed investment in broadband or not by removing regulatory disincentives? You wouldn't think it would be that difficult a question to answer, but then you might not have been following the FCC for the past few years.
Let's see whether the FCC can get off the dime and promptly grant Verizon's petition asking it to forbear from applying Section's 271 sharing requirements for new broadband loops consistent with its holding in the TRO that competitors are not impaired without access to the incumbents' loops. History dictates it would be foolish to be very optimistic. But common sense says that sooner rather than later the Commission has to get serious about removing the regulatory impediments to new broadband investment.