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US appeals court rules against the FCCUS appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling requiring the Federal Communications Commission to allow...

US appeals court rules against the FCC

US appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling requiring the Federal Communications Commission to allow state authorities to set prices charged by local phone companies that lease their services to rival firms, press reports said. The court, located in St. Louis, Missouri, last July found that the FCC had erred In finding that local companies had to lease their services at prices set by the Commission.

The court ruled that the 1996 legislation deregulating the US telecom industry authorized state authorities to fix the prices. According one company offering local services, US West, the FCC in August appeared to ignore the finding when it said that local firms — known as Baby Bells — had to comply with FCC prices before they would be accorded long-distance rights."The FCC’s justification of its reassertion of local pricing authority lacks even the scent of merit," the appeals court said, according to portions of the decision circulated by US West.

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FCC Chairman William Kennard said in response to the latest ruling that he was "disappointed that two years after the Telecommunications Act, yet another court decision will delay the benefits of competition for the American public."

Marubeni to sell power in the US

Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. plans to start an electric-power retailing business in the United States later this year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Sithe Energies Inc, Marubeni’s US unit, has already obtained a license for the Business from US authorities, the daily said.

The US unit plans to buy 12 power plants from Boston Edison Co. in Massachusetts for 500 million dollars, while it will build two to four new power plants to retail and wholesale electricity to companies. Marubeni’s total power generation capacity is expected to meet 23 per cent of demand in the New England region, it said.

Mitsui, Siemens win Vietnam order

Japan’s Mitsui and Co. Ltd. and Germany’s Siemens AG have jointly won a 10 billion yen ($79 million) order to build a power plant in Vietnam, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.The two companies have received the order from Vietnam’s electric power public Corporation, the business daily said. Mitsui, Siemens and the Vietnamese government signed a contract for the project on Friday in Ho Chi Minh City. Under the plan, the two companies are to build a 300,000 kilowatt power plant in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City with plans to start operations by the end of December, it said. Siemens is in charge of supplying plant equipment, while Mitsui is to provide financial support.