A federal court denied a petition on Friday by Sprint Nextel Corp. and Qwest Communications International Inc. which challenged a decision made last year that gave Verizon Communications Inc. relief from pricing caps and regulations on broadband services.

There is no indication that the commission or individual commissioners have abused this provision or have acted in bad faith, the Appeals Court ruled according to The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday declined to review the situation saying that there was no Federal Communications Commission action to review.

Last year, two FCC commissioners voted for the petition and two voted against it. The votes meant that, according to Congressional rules, Verizon's petition was deemed granted.

In a statement, Sprint spokesman John Taylor said the company was disappointed in the court's decision however the lawmakers have recognized the FCC process is broken and needs repair.

The deadlocked vote cannot be considered an order of the commission, nor can it constitute agency action, the three federal court judges declared.

However the judges said they could not review the decision because a deadlocked vote is unreviewable.

We also recognize that because a deadlocked vote is unreviewable, we lack jurisdiction in what may be the hardest cases -- cases in which the forbearance petition raises such difficult issues that it produces an equally divided vote among the commissioners., they added.

Verizon Communications Inc. Sprint Broadband