Media Contact:
Mark Wigfield, (202) 418-0253
mark.wigfield@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
FCC Takes Major Step in Review of Competition in $40 Billion Special Access Market
Washington, D.C
. (September 17, 2015) - Taking the next major step in its review of
competition in the marketplace for special access services, the FCC's Wireline Competition
Bureau, on behalf of the Commission, will start to make industry data gathered earlier this year
available for public review, pursuant to the terms of a protective order safeguarding competitively
sensitive information.
Special access is a wholesale data service widely purchased by businesses and institutions that
provides dedicated, guaranteed transmission of high volumes of critical data. The FCC has been
collecting data with which to analyze the state of competition in the special access market, which
has annual revenues of approximately $40 billion.
Members of the public authorized under the protective order will soon be contacted by NORC at
the University of Chicago to enable review of the data. The data is housed in a secure data
enclave hosted by NORC, a public policy research institution, and will be accessible remotely as
well as through NORC's facilities in Bethesda, MD.
To assist in its own analysis of the data, the FCC has contracted with Boston University Professor
of Economics Marc Rysman, who will provide advice and produce a White Paper examining the
nature of competition and marketplace practices in the supply of special access
services. Professor Rysman, who just completed a visiting scholar program at Harvard, is a
leading practitioner in empirical industrial organization, specializing in issues of network effects,
two-sided markets, standardization and compatibility, notably in telecommunications.
We note that a number of objections were filed to the initial group of individuals seeking access
to the collected data. The objections were largely against the release of data regardless of the
non-disclosure restrictions contained in the Bureau's protective order released in October 2014, to
which no party sought review or reconsideration. No access will be provided to the data of those
filers that objected until their objections are resolved.
The Bureau's procedures, as set forth in the protective order and implemented at the secure data
enclave, are designed to protect the commercially sensitive information collected while still
allowing interested parties to review the data and participate in the underlying rulemaking
proceeding.
Finally, in two related public notices also released today, the Bureau announced more individuals
seeking access to the collected data, and extended the comment and reply comment deadlines for
the special access rulemaking to November 20 and December 11, 2015, respectively. The
deadlines had been September 25 and October 16, 2015.
Public Notice Extending Comment Deadlines:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-15-1037A1.pdf
Public Notice Listing More Individuals Seeking Access to Data:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-15-1038A1.pdf
###
Office of Media Relations: (202) 418-0500
TTY: (888) 835-5322
Twitter: @FCC
www.fcc.gov/office-media-relations
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order
constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).
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