Underlying long distance companies will have to compensate paypho...
Underlying long distance companies will have to compensate payphone providers for coinless calls made by their resellers under FCC order released April 5. Order aims to ease payphone providers’ difficulty in collecting payment for calls handled by carriers that…
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resell services of facilities-based long distance companies such as AT&T and WorldCom. Order also requires underlying carriers to track or arrange for tracking payphone calls to determine whether they are completed and thus subject to compensation. Resellers then would have to reimburse underlying facilities-based carrier for amount paid to payphone services as well as cost of tracking calls and making reports to payphone providers. American Public Communications Council (APCC) said it was “satisfied” with order because it clarified treatment of what were called “dial-around” calls, made with access code or toll- free number. FCC said 20%-50% of revenue for calls routed to switched-based resellers were uncollected. APCC said order was particularly important for consumers who didn’t have home phone because it would “keep payphones in place and continue to keep the cost of a payphone call competitive.” Order basically gives payment responsibility to “the first interexchange carrier to whom a dial-around call is routed from the local telephone company… rather than other carriers further down the chain that may not be accessible to the [payphone provider],” FCC said.