Atlas Telephone Co. v. Oklahoma Corp. Com'n

Decision Date10 March 2005
Docket NumberNo. 04-6100.,No. 04-6101.,No. 04-6098.,No. 04-6096.,04-6096.,04-6098.,04-6100.,04-6101.
Citation400 F.3d 1256
PartiesATLAS TELEPHONE COMPANY; Beggs Telephone Company; Bixby Telephone Company; Canadian Valley Telephone Company; Carnegie Telephone Company; Central Oklahoma Telephone Company; Cherokee Telephone Company; Chickasaw Telephone Company; Chouteau Telephone Company; Cimarron Telephone Company; Cross Telephone Company; Dobson Telephone Company; Grand Telephone Company; Hinton Telephone Company; Kanokla Telephone Association; McLoud Telephone Company; Medicine Park Telephone Company; Oklahoma Telephone & Telegraph; Oklahoma Western Telephone Company; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pine Telephone Company; Lavaca Telephone Company, doing business as Pinnacle Communications; Pioneer Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pottawatomie Telephone Company; Salina-Spavinaw Telephone Company; Santa Rosa Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Shidler Telephone Company; South Central Telephone Association, Inc.; Southwest Oklahoma Telephone Company; Terral Telephone Company; Totah Telephone Company Inc.; Valliant Telephone Company, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. OKLAHOMA CORPORATION COMMISSION; Denise A. Bode; Bob Anthony; Jeff Cloud, Corporation Commissioners in their official capacities, Defendants, and AT & T Wireless Service, Inc., Defendant-Appellee. Atlas Telephone Company; Beggs Telephone Company; Bixby Telephone Company; Canadian Valley Telephone Company; Carnegie Telephone Company; Central Oklahoma Telephone Company; Cherokee Telephone Company; Chickasaw Telephone Company; Chouteau Telephone Company; Cimarron Telephone Company; Cross Telephone Company; Dobson Telephone Company; Grand Telephone Company; Hinton Telephone Company; Kanokla Telephone Association; McLoud Telephone Company; Medicine Park Telephone Company; Oklahoma Telephone & Telegraph; Oklahoma Western Telephone Company; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pine Telephone Company; Lavaca Telephone Company, doing business as Pinnacle Communications; Pioneer Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pottawatomie Telephone Company; Salina-Spavinaw Telephone Company; Santa Rosa Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Shidler Telephone Company; South Central Telephone Association, Inc.; Southwest Oklahoma Telephone Company; Terral Telephone Company; Totah Telephone Company Inc.; Valliant Telephone Company, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Oklahoma Corporation Commission; Denise A. Bode; Bob Anthony; Jeff Cloud, Corporation Commissioners, in their official capacities; Southwestern Bell Wireless Inc., doing business as Cingular Wireless LLC, Oklahoma RSA 3 Limited Partnership, Oklahoma RSA 9 Limited Partnership, Oklahoma City SMSA Limited Partnership, Defendants-Appellees. Atlas Telephone Company; Beggs Telephone Company; Bixby Telephone Company; Canadian Valley Telephone Company; Carnegie Telephone Company; Central Oklahoma Telephone Company; Cherokee Telephone Company; Chickasaw Telephone Company; Chouteau Telephone Company; Cimarron Telephone Company; Cross Telephone Company; Dobson Telephone Company; Grand Telephone Company; Hinton Telephone Company; Kanokla Telephone Association; McLoud Telephone Company; Medicine Park Telephone Company; Oklahoma Telephone & Telegraph; Oklahoma Western Telephone Company; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pine Telephone Company; Lavaca Telephone Company, doing business as Pinnacle Communications; Pioneer Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pottawatomie Telephone Company; Salina-Spavinaw Telephone Company; Santa Rosa Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Shidler Telephone Company; South Central Telephone Association, Inc.; Southwest Oklahoma Telephone Company; Terral Telephone Company; Totah Telephone Company Inc.; Valliant Telephone Company, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Oklahoma Corporation Commission; Denise A. Bode, Bob Anthony, Jeff Cloud, Corporation Commissioners in their official capacities; WWC License LLC, Defendants-Appellees. Atlas Telephone Company; Beggs Telephone Company; Bixby Telephone Company; Canadian Valley Telephone Company; Carnegie Telephone Company; Central Oklahoma Telephone Company; Cherokee Telephone Company; Chickasaw Telephone Company; Chouteau Telephone Company; Cimarron Telephone Company; Cross Telephone Company; Dobson Telephone Company; Grand Telephone Company; Hinton Telephone Company; Kanokla Telephone Association; McLoud Telephone Company; Medicine Park Telephone Company; Oklahoma Telephone & Telegraph; Oklahoma Western Telephone Company; Panhandle Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pine Telephone Company; Lavaca Telephone Company, doing business as Pinnacle Communications; Pioneer Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Pottawatomie Telephone Company; Salina-Spavinaw Telephone Company; Santa Rosa Telephone Cooperative Inc.; Shidler Telephone Company; South Central Telephone Association, Inc.; Southwest Oklahoma Telephone Company; Terral Telephone Company; Totah Telephone Company Inc.; Valliant Telephone Company, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Oklahoma Corporation Commission; Denise A. Bode; Bob Anthony; Jeff Cloud, Corporation Commissioners in their official capacities; Sprint Spectrum Limited Partnership, d/b/a Sprint PCS, Defendants-Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Kendall W. Parrish (Ron Comingdeer, Mary Kathryn Kunc, David W. Lee, and Ambre C. Gooch, Comingdeer, Lee & Gooch, Oklahoma City, OK, and Kimberly K. Brown, Kimberly K. Brown, P.C., Oklahoma City, OK, with him on the briefs), Comingdeer, Lee & Gooch, Oklahoma City, OK, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Phillip R. Schenkenberg (Michael G. Harris and William H. Hickman, Moricoli Harris & Cottingham, Oklahoma City, OK, with him on the brief), Briggs and Morgan, P.A., Saint Paul, MN, for Defendant-Appellee WWC License L.L.C.

Marc Edwards and Jennifer Kirkpatrick, Phillips McFall McCaffrey McVay & Murrah, P.C., Oklahoma City, OK, and Lawrence S. Smith, Smith, Majcher & Mudge, L.L.P., Austin, TX, on the brief for Defendant-Appellee AT & T Wireless Services, Inc.

John Paul Walters, Jr., Edmond, OK, on the brief for Defendant-Appellee Cingular Wireless.

Brett Leopold, Sprint Spectrum, L.P., Overland Park, KS, on the brief for Defendant-Appellee Sprint Spectrum, L.P., d/b/a Sprint PCS.

Before KELLY, ANDERSON and O'BRIEN, Circuit Judges.

PAUL KELLY, JR., Circuit Judge.

In these consolidated appeals, Plaintiffs-Appellants rural telephone companies ("RTCs") collectively appeal the district court's orders affirming final orders of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission ("OCC"). The OCC orders established interconnection obligations under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 between the RTCs and Defendant-Appellees commercial mobile radio service ("CMRS") providers. Our jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

Background

The RTCs are traditional landline telecommunications carriers doing business in Oklahoma. CMRS providers are wireless telecommunications carriers. This dispute arose from negotiations for interconnection agreements between the RTCs and CMRS providers.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("Telecommunications Act" or "Act"), 47 U.S.C. §§ 151-614, opened the previously monopolized telecommunications industry to competition. Under the Act, local exchange carriers ("LECs"),1 like the RTCs, have a duty to interconnect with competitors and negotiate agreements in good faith. 47 U.S.C. §§ 251(a)(1), (c)(1). In the instant cases, the RTCs and CMRS providers resolved many outstanding issues during voluntary negotiations entered into pursuant to § 252(a)(1) of the Act. However, negotiations broke down over compensation for the transport and termination of telecommunications traffic. The CMRS providers subsequently filed petitions with the OCC seeking arbitration of the contested issues pursuant to § 252(b)(1) of the Act.

The parties raised numerous issues before the OCC-appointed arbitrator. Relevant here, the RTCs and CMRS providers disputed the compensation regime that would apply to the transport and termination of telecommunications between the parties' networks. Under the terms of the interconnection agreements, the CMRS providers were not required to establish physical connections with the RTC networks, although the agreements do not preclude such connections. Rather, telecommunications traffic could be routed through an interexchange carrier ("IXC"), Southwestern Bell Telephone Company ("SWBT"). When an RTC customer places a call to a CMRS customer, the call must first pass from the RTC network through a point of interconnection with the SWBT network. SWBT then routes the call to a second point of interconnection between its network and the CMRS network. The call is then delivered to the CMRS customer.2 In contrast, were the RTC and CMRS networks directly connected, the call would pass only through a single point of interconnection.

The CMRS providers maintained that, regardless of the presence of the IXC, the telecommunications exchange referenced above is subject to the reciprocal compensation obligations found in § 251(b)(5) of the Act. The Federal Communications Commission ("FCC"), charged with effectuating the provisions of the Act, has determined that reciprocal compensation should only apply to telecommunications traffic originating and terminating in the same local area. First Report and Order, FCC 96-325, CC Docket Nos. 96-98, 95-185, ¶ 1034 (Aug. 8, 1996) ("First Report and Order"). Under a typical reciprocal compensation agreement between two carriers, the carrier on whose network the call originates bears the cost of transporting the telecommunications traffic to the point of interconnection with the carrier on whose network the call terminates. Id. Having been compensated by its customer, the originating network in turn compensates the terminating carrier for completing the call. Id. In contrast, the RTCs maintained that traffic passing through an IXC is subject to the access charge, or long-distance calling, regime. Under the access charge regime, the originating caller...

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