Telecommunication & Cable
Stone & Baxter, LLP has substantial experience in representing competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and municipal telephone companies before both the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Such representation has included formation and certification of carriers, tariff filings before those agencies, and disputes with competing carriers, broadband and fiber issues, as well as preparing and filing the periodic reports required by regulators. Disputes frequently result in extended hearings, preparation of pre-filed witness testimony and pleadings, negotiation with agency staff and opposing parties, and handling appeals of agency decisions to state or federal court.
Since telecommunications services are now provided extensively by cable television companies, the firm serves as regulatory counsel for the Georgia Cable Association regularly before the PSC on a host of issues.
The firm formed and obtained a certificate for the first independent CLEC authorized to do business in Georgia, Georgia Com South, Inc., in 1996. It also formed Access Integrated Networks, Inc. which grew into one of the largest providers of local exchange service in the state, ultimately merging with Birch Communications. The firm continues to represent several municipal telecommunications companies.
Such representation has included lobbying efforts in both the Georgia General Assembly and in Congress.
Mr. Baxter is a long-term member of the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA).
