Rural carriers get special treatment under the Federal Communications Commission’s recent ruling to classify DSL as an information service. The commission allows rural carriers to choose whether or not they want to continue to retain their common carrier status and continue to recover their costs under rate of return regulation, including the cost of building broadband networks.

The FCC said rural carriers have the option to continue to operate as common carriers – providing open access to their networks – and continuing to participate in the NECA pool, which provides compensation for access and termination services.

Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, one of two Democrats, said he was “particularly pleased that this Order includes meaningful provisions to address the needs of carriers serving Rural America. By allowing rural providers to continue to offer their broadband services on a common carrier basis, and by allowing them to participate in the NECA pooling process, we maintain their ability to reduce administrative costs, minimize risk, and create incentives for investment in broadband facilities that are so crucial to the future of Rural America.”

The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, a Washington trade group supporting rural telcos, also applauded this aspect of the ruling.

“RoR regulation enables rural ILECs to obtain the capital necessary to build, operate and maintain telecommunications facilities,” the NTCA said in a press release. “The combination of RoR regulation and the NECA pooling structure provides rural ILECs the assurance that they will recover their substantial investment in the network infrastructure that is essential to providing advanced, reliable telecommunications services to rural consumers.”