While various state regulatory agencies will see their power in telephony diminish, Spiwak said they will still retain some powers. "States will have to deal with interconnect issues," he said in an interview. "They have their own state telecom regulations and they'll have arbitration (responsibilities). They'll still have a very strong role to play."
Spiwak said the RBOCs and the long distance companies face "a tremendous challenge" to negotiate workable solutions to the access fee problem. "It should come as no great shock to anyone that so-called arms'-length negotiations between monopolists and competitors will fail," he said.
For its part, the FCC has been attempting to formulate guidelines for negotiations between the two sides in the issue. To date, one RBOC -- Qwest -- has worked out an agreement with MCI. The remaining RBOC's -- BellSouth, SBC, and Verizon -- haven't been able to reach any agreement on the issue with long distance carriers or with other independent telecom service providers.
Consumer organizations say the demise of the discounted access fee schedule will likely lead to higher telephone rates for subscribers. The RBOCs, who will now be able to raise access fees, say they will have more resources to put into other telecom facilities.
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