CA1: states lose even more power to regulate local phone connections

Verizon New England v. ME Public Utilities, Nos. 06-2151, 06-2429 (9/6/07).  In two cases, Maine sought to enter the Maine and New Hampshire local phone markets.  The local telephone commissions want Verizon to continue to provide its competitors with access to it network at statutorily favorable rates.  See 47 U.S.C. § 251(c)(3).  In Maine utilities commission entered orders saying that Verizon had to make its network available pursuant to the Federal statute, and Verizon claimed those ordered violated the supremacy clause.  In New Hampshire, things turned out differently.  The First Circuit holds that 47 U.S.C. § 271 provides authority only to the FCC to resolve these rate issues.  Moreover, state law can’t be used to accomplish the same things.  Finally, some regulatory issues regarding the definitions of different parts of telephone networks, the 1st says are better left to the FCC.

So, the states (and perhaps the consumers) lose on pretty much all grounds. 

This case provides a nice history of telephone service after the Bell system was broken up.