BellSouth released a statement this week telling the Federal Communications Commission that it plans to deploy fiber to almost 60% more locations in 2005 than it did in 2004. The statement was a response to CLECs' attempts to have the FCC's fiber-to-the-curb ruling from last year re-written, the company said. BellSouth and other ILECs have been making the case that the ruling, which protected ILECs from opening the fiber loops to competitors, spurred increased fiber investment last year, and continues to do so. BellSouth said its fiber installations in 2004 were 30% ahead of 2003.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Brand X case that cable companies were not required to share their network facilities with competitors. Installations of fiber-to-the-curb in 2004 were 30 percent ahead of 2003.