The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving AT&T and LinkLine Communications Inc. LinkLine is an ISP which buys wholesale broadband circuits from AT&T and then uses those circuits to compete with AT&T in some California markets. It’s a scenario played out all across the country with other incumbents and competing ISPs and CLECs. LinkLine sued AT&T, citing unfair and anti-competitive pricing for those wholesale broadband circuits. AT&T says it’s not obligated to provide wholesale circuits to competitors at favorable pricing. LinkLine obviously disagrees and so did the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, who ruled in LinkLine’s favor. So on to the Supreme Court for a case that will be closely watched by telecom’s competition interests.
