The Hill.com reported yesterday on a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission from a number of Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee asking the FCC to look at implementing policy that would lead to the reduction of rates for special access lines.

Special access lines are typically used to connect a customer directly to a long distance provider, avoiding a central office or other portions of the public telephone network. They can also be used to connect various customer locations.

The Democrats aim is to allegedly increase innovation and investment for special access customers. If the Democrats want to increase innovation and investment, they should encourage these customers to generate products, services, and content that stimulates consumer demand for them.

This surprisingly supply-side approach by Democrats won’t work. Special access rates have historically been set higher than other access line rates because of their non-shared nature. It’s just the economics of the network.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Leap Wireless has joined to the opposition to AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile USA. The basis for Leap Wireless’ opposition is that they believe AT&T will leverage their position as a local exchange provider by charging unreasonably high access charges.

Interesting how special access has now become a problem for wireless carriers. Seeking a reduction of special access rates may undermine attempts to deploy broadband in rural areas.