TEXAS OFFICE OF PUBLIC UTILITY COUNSEL v. F.C.C.

No. 97-60421.

183 F.3d 393 (1999)

TEXAS OFFICE OF PUBLIC UTILITY COUNSEL; Celpage, Inc.; Southwestern Bell Telephone Company; GTE Midwest, Inc.; Louisiana Public Service Commission, an Executive Branch Department of the State of Louisiana; COMSAT Corporation; People of the State of California; Public Utilities Commission of the State of California; Iowa Utilities Board; South Dakota Public Utilities Commission; Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission; Bell Atlantic Telephone Companies; Vermont Department of Public Service; GTE Service Corporation; GTE Alaska Incorporated; GTE Arkansas Incorporated; GTE California Incorporated; GTE Florida Incorporated; GTE South Incorporated; GTE Southwest Incorporated; GTE North Incorporated; GTE Northwest Incorporated; GTE Hawaiian Telephone Company Incorporated; GTE West Coast Incorporated; Contel of California, Inc.; Contel of Minnesota, Inc.; Contel of the South, Inc.; Public Service Commission of Nevada; Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company; Florida Public Service Commission; People of the State of New York; Public Service Commission of the State of New York; and The State Corporation Commission of the State of Kansas, Petitioners, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION and United States of America, Respondents.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

July 30, 1999.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Ricardo Guzman, Austin, TX, for Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel.

Charles H. Helein, Robert M. McDowell, Harisha J. Bastiampillai, Helein & Associates, PC, McLean, VA, for America's Carriers Telecommunication Ass'n.

Neal Morse Goldberg, Nat. Cable Television Ass'n, Washington, DC, for Nat. Cable Television Ass'n.

Madelyn M. DeMatteo, The Southern New England Tel. Co., New Haven, CT, for Southern New England Tel. Co.

Charles C. Hunter, Catherine M. Hannan, Hunter Communications Law Group, Washington, DC, for Telecommunications Resellers Ass'n.

Robert Allen Long, Jr., Covington & Burling, Washington, DC, for Sprint Spectrum L.P.

Lisa Marie Zaina, Washington, DC, Margot Smiley Humphrey, Koteen & Naftalin, Washington, DC, L. Marie Guillory, David Cosson, Nat. Tel. Co-op. Ass'n, Arlington, VA, for Rural Tel. Coalition.

James Richmond Hobson, Frederic L. Wood, Donelan, Cleary, Wood & Maser, PC, Washington, DC, for Nat. Emergency Number Ass'n.

Sue D. Blumenfeld, Thomas C. Jones, Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, Washington, DC., for Sprint Corp.

James Andrew Meyers, Drinker, Biddler & Reath, Washington, DC, for Puerto Rico Tel. Co.

Patricia L.C. Mahoney, Pac. Telesis Legal Group, San Francisco, CA, for Pac. Bell and Nevada Bell.

Richard J. Metzger, Washington, DC, for Ass'n for Local Telecommunications Services.

Frederick Mark Joyce, Christine McLaughlin, Joyce & Jacobs, Washington, DC, for Metrocall, Inc. and Celpage, Inc.

Daniel Evan Smith, Gurman, Blask & Freedman, Chartered, Washington, DC, for Metrocall, Inc.

John E. Ingle, William E. Kennard, Christopher Joseph Wright, Aaron Jacob Rappaport, Nancy Louise Kiefer, FCC, Washington, DC, for FCC.

Nancy C. Garrison, Catherine G. O'Sullivan, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Antitrust Div., App. Section, Washington, DC, for U.S.

Jules M. Perlberg, David William Carpenter, Sidley & Austin, Chicago, IL, James P. Young, Washington, DC, Gene C. Schaerr, Edward R. McNicholas, Sidley & Austin, Washington, DC, for AT&T Corp.

Paul March Smith, William Mark Hohengarten, Jenner & Block, Washington, DC, for MCI Telecommunications Corp.

Jonathan Jacob Nadler, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Washington, DC, for Information Technology Ass'n of America.

Richard S. Whitt, WorldCom, Inc., Washington, DC, for WorldCom, Inc.

Michael Joseph Zpevak, Dallas, TX, for Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., Pac. Bell and Nevada Bell.

Darryl W. Howard, Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., Durward D. Dupre, SBC Communications, St. Louis, MO, for Southwestern Bell Tel. Co.

Matthew C. Ames, William Robert Malone, Nicholas P. Miller, Miller & Van Eaton, Washington, DC, for Education & Library Networks Coalition, Global Village Schools Institute and American Library Ass'n.

Blossom A. Peretz, Newark, NJ, for N.J. Div. of the Ratepayer Advocate.

Glenn B. Manishin, Christy Cornell Kunin, Blumenfeld & Cohen, John Windhausen, Jr., Competition Policy Institute, Washington, DC, for Competition Policy Institute.

Angela Julia Campbell, Douglas Lloyd Parker, Georgetown Univ. Law, Washington, DC, for Edgemont Neighborhood Coalition, Alliance for Community Media, Benton Foundation, Center for Media Ed., Consumer Action, Migrant Legal Action Program, Nat. Ass'n for Migrant Ed., U.S. Catholic Conference and Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Linda Lee Kent, Washington, DC, fof U.S. Tel. Ass'n.

James S. Blaszak, Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP, Washington, DC, for Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee.

Colleen Fox Boothby, Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP, Washington, DC, for Information Technology Industry Council.

William T. Lake, Jonathan Joshua Frankel, John Henry Harwood, David M. Sohn, Samir Jain, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, DC, Robert B. McKenna, Denver, CO, for U.S. West, Inc.

Michael J. Shortley, III, Rochester, NY, for Frontier Corp.

Douglas Edward Hart, Cincinnati, OH, for Cincinnati Bell Tel. Co.

Gerard J. Duffy, Benjamin Herman Dickens, Blooston, Mordkofsky, Jackson & Dickens, Washington, DC, for Western Alliance.

Michael E. Glover, Lawrence W. Katz, Betsy Loise Roe, Edward D. Young, III, Arlington, VA, Richard Gary Taranto, Farr & Taranto, Washington, DC, for Bell Atlantic Tel. Companies.

Judith A. Mather, J.G. Harrington, Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC, Washington, DC, for Vanguard Cellular Systems, Inc.

Laura H. Phillips, James Aloysius Treanor, III, Michael DeWayne Hays, Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC, Washington, DC, for Comcast Cellular Communications, Inc.

Philip V. Permut, Rebekah J. Kinnett, Robert J. Aamoth, Danny E. Adams, Kelley, Drye & Warren, Washington, DC, for COMSAT Corp.

Donald Falk, Kenneth Steven Geller, Mayer, Brown & Platt, Washington, DC, for Ameritech Corp.

Charles Acquard, Nat'l Assoc. of State Utility Consumer Advocates, Washington, DC, for Nat. Ass'n of State Utility Consumer Advocates.

David A. Gross, AirTouch Communications, Washington, DC, for AirTouch Communications, Inc.

John D. Rockefeller, IV, U.S. Senator, West Virginia, Washington, DC, pro se.

Olympia J. Snowe, U.S. Senator, Maine, Washington, DC, pro se.

Brian Andrew Eddington, Baton Rouge, LA, for Louisiana Pub. Serv. Com'n.

Ellen S. LeVine, San Francisco, CA, for People of the State of CA and Pub. Utilities Com'n of the State of CA.

Diane Munns, Iowa Utilities Bd., Des Moines, IA, for Iowa Utilities Bd.

Rolayne Ailts Wiest, SD Pub. Utilities Com'n, Pierre, SD, for SD Pub. Utilities Com'n.

Joseph Kevin Witmer, Bohdan R. Pankiw, PA Pub. Utility Com'n, Harrisburg, PA, for PA Pub. Utility Com'n.

Elisabeth Hewitt Ross, James Hardwick Lister, Birch, Horton, Bittner & Cherot, Washington, DC, Sheldon M. Katz, VT Dept. of Pub. Services, Montpelier, VT, for VT Dept. of Pub. Serv.

Lawrence R. Sidman, Eric T. Werner, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, Washington, DC, for Pub. Serv. Com'n of Nevada.

Robert D. Vandiver, Cynthia B. Miller, FL Pub. Serv. Com'n, Tallahassee, FL, for FL Pub. Serv. Com'n.

Lawrence G. Malone, Pub. Serv. Com'n of the State of NY, Maureen J. McCauley, NYS Pub. Serv. Com'n, Albany, NY, for People of the State of NY.

Marianne Deagle, Eva Powers, Kansas Corp. Com'n, Topeka, KS, for The State Corp. Com'n of the State of KS.

James U. Troup, Aimee Melissa Cook, Brian D. Robinson, Arter & Hadden, Washington, DC, Charles L. Perry, Arter & Hadden, Dallas, TX, for Bay Springs Tel. Co., Inc.

Paul Thomas Cappuccio, Patrick F. Philbin, John P. Frantz, Steven Gill Bradbury, Kirkland & Ellis, Washington, DC, Martin Edward Whelan, GTE Corp., Washington, DC, for GTE Midwest, Inc.

Before SMITH, DUHÉ and EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judges.


JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

This is a consolidated challenge to the most recent attempt of the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") to implement provisions of the landmark 1996 Telecommunications Act (the "Act").1 Petitioners, joined by numerous intervenors, challenge several aspects of the FCC's Universal Service Order (the "Order") implementing the provisions of the Act codified at 47 U.S.C. § 254. We grant the petition...

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