Private Investors Keep Tabs on Pending Forbearance Petitions

The FCC needs to institute a “solid procedural framework” for resolving forbearance petitions, according to M/C Venture Partners and Columbia Capital. “The state of permanent uncertainty that this approach would unavoidably cause would chill future investment and thereby disserve the public interest,” they noted in a recent letter to the FCC.

The ability to invest in competitive service providers is the lifeblood of firms like M/C Venture Partners and Columbia Capital. Cashman said M/C Venture Partners has “never been a proponent of UNE-P” and needs its portfolio companies to have access to loop and transport unbundling, and fair access rates.

“We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars building out fiber networks, building out colocations, building out data equipment to address these customers,” Cashman said, speaking of small and medium enterprises. “There’s a lot of capital involved so we’re going to be as involved as we can be. [Forbearance] is a serious issue for our portfolio companies.”