BellSouth told the Federal Communications Commission on June 30th that it plans to deploy fiber to almost 60 percent more locations in 2005 than it did in 2004.

Installations of fiber-to-the-curb in 2004 were 30 percent ahead of 2003.

The commission ruled in 2004 that fiber-to-the-curb was functionally equivalent to fiber-to-the-home. Elimination of the regulatory distinction meant that BellSouth could invest in its chosen method of fiber deployment without governmental mandates to turn over its fiber loops to competitors.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cable companies were not required to share their high-speed internet access facilities with competitors. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is on record as saying the FCC needs to move quickly to establish regulatory parity between telcos and cable companies that are providing broadband service.

"By rejecting the CLEC petitions and moving quickly to bring regulatory parity for high-speed broadband providers, the FCC can spark even more investment and faster delivery of innovative services to customers," said Herschel Abbott, BellSouth vice president governmental affairs.

Although BellSouth had installed fiber in many branches of its network, the rate of deployment rapidly increased once the commission's action removed the disincentive. BellSouth's report on the new installations came in a filing at the Commission opposing requests by several CLECs for the FCC to reconsider its earlier decision. "The radical rewriting of the fiber-to-the-curb order proposed by [CLECs] runs the risk of paralyzing the ability of incumbents to evolve their networks and implement new, advanced technologies," BellSouth said.

Related Documents:

BellSouth FTTC Recon Opposition: http://bellsouthcorp.com/relatives/18000.pdf