The FCC faces a midnight deadline for a decision on AT&T’s petition to lift regulations on charges for third parties renting its broadband infrastructure. Verizon (NYSE: VZ) earned a similar concession last year, as Reuters notes, but only because one commissioner’s recusal led to a deadlock. The FCC could also rule on a similar request from Qwest. Opposing the change are consumer groups as well as smaller operators like Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel, XO and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Telecom, who contend that AT&T (NYSE: T) will be able to exploit its dominant infrastructure position to shut out competition by extracting high prices.

Updated: With minutes to spare, the FCC issued an order showing a 3-2 vote along party lines Thursday to grant AT&T’s “substantial” but not total relief.  The full order is here (pdf). No decision on Qwest.

DJ Newswire: “The decision freed up AT&T from having to adhere to detailed rate obligations, but didn’t grant the wider freedom it had been seeking. This means that competitive carriers would no longer be able to see what AT&T generally charges business customers for providing some forms of broadband service, and thus be able to price their own services accordingly.” But the FCC also instituted a complaint procedure that requires resolution of any complaint against AT&T within five months.

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