FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 24, 2001

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: John Winston (202) 418-7450

Washington, DC - Today, the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission announced that it has imposed a $94,500 fine against SBC Communications, Inc. (SBC) for violating the Commission's collocation rules. Those rules generally require incumbent local exchange carriers (incumbents) to allow competing carriers to place their equipment in the incumbents' offices.

The rule at issue in this case requires incumbents to post within 10 days, on their publicly available Internet site, notices of incumbent-owned premises that have run out of collocation space. The purpose of this rule is to ensure that competitors do not waste time and resources applying for collocation space where none exists. An independent audit of SBC's compliance with the Commission's collocation posting rules uncovered a small number of violations. However, information that SBC provided during the Enforcement Bureau's subsequent investigation revealed that the company had violated the rule in numerous other instances. The Bureau issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) relating to this matter on January 18, 2001 (DA 01-128). In its Order of Forfeiture announced today, the Bureau rejected several defenses that SBC asserted in its response to the NAL, and imposed the full amount of the fine it proposed in January.

Action by the Chief, Enforcement Bureau, May 24, 2001, Order of Forfeiture (DA 01-1273).

Enforcement Bureau contacts: John R. Winston at (202) 418-7450, and Elizabeth H. Valinoti at (202) 418-1529.