FCC to Reform Intercarrier Comp by November?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: October 6, 2008 9:20:39 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC to Reform Intercarrier Comp by November?

FCC TO REFORM INTERCARRIER COMP BY NOVEMBER?

Can the FCC take a 7-year-old proposed rulemaking on intercarrier  
compensation and overhaul the system by November? Chairman Kevin  
Martin says he's going to try. The impetus stems from a federal  
appeals court mandate. By Nov. 5, the FCC must justify its reason for  
treating ISP-bound traffic as "information access." If the FCC doesn't  
meet the deadline, the court will override the agency's authority,  
wreaking havoc on any carrier terminating traffic to an ILEC, sources  
said. That's because different state rates suddenly would apply for  
traffic termination, rather than the across-the-board $.0007 per  
minute. The tangled intercarrier compensation regime is long overdue  
for reform. Some carriers have figured out how to make IXCs pay  
thousands, if not millions, of dollars per month through traffic  
pumping. Others avoid their obligation to pay by disguising their  
traffic so their peers can't charge them. Still others want  
interconnected VoIP providers to pay access charges. All of this  
bleeds over into the Universal Service Fund (USF) policy, too,  
complicating an already complex program.

<http://www.xchangemag.com/hotnews/comtel-fall08/fcc-to-reform-intercarrier-comp-by-november.html 
>

Courtesy of the Benton Foundation <http://www.benton.org>
RSS Feed: <http://www.warpspeed.com/wordpress>




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