Teeing up reciprocal compensation issue on Hill, House Commerce C...

for all.” In letters sent Feb. 15 to Electric Lightwave, Focal, Intermediate Communications, ITC Deltacom, Pac-West Telecomm and WorldCom, Tauzin asked for detailed information on their reciprocal compensation payments, revenues and associated costs. For example, he asked for how much money they had received over 4 years in reciprocal compensation and how much they had paid out. He also asked percent of their total revenues generated by reciprocal compensation. He said he was particularly interested in arguments that eliminating reciprocal compensation would require CLECs to raise their connection rates for ISP customers, which might then pass costs onto end users. Tauzin asked Powell for additional information, saying, for example, he would like material “detailing how a CLEC’s costs of routing a dial-up Internet call typically compare with a CLEC’s costs of completing a 2-way voice local telephone call.” He asked whether there were differences in types of network facilities used for those 2 kinds of calls and requested that FCC brief his staff on agency’s “activities and views” on issue. In letter to Powell, he said it had been 4 years since ALTS asked for clarification on reciprocal compensation dispute and “we still have no resolution.” FCC has made some “nondecisions” in meantime but it still was unclear what calls were entitled to reciprocal compensation. Industry sources said they expected Tauzin to come out with wide-ranging bill soon that would add reciprocal compensation to data LATA provisions sought by Bell companies.