FCC clarified its payphone compensation rules Wed. to emphasize t...
FCC clarified its payphone compensation rules Wed. to emphasize that “only calls that are answered by the called party are ‘completed,’ and thus compensable.” Rules involve method for compensating payphone service providers (PSPs) when coinless calls are handled by…
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switched resellers. FCC had said that facilities-based interexchange carrier (IXC) that first handles call has to act as intermediary, getting compensation from resellers and paying PSPs. (IXC is basically long distance carrier.) However, there had been dispute over whether IXCs should collect payment for all calls or just for those calls that were answered by called party. FCC opted for latter. “We find that AT&T’s practice of compensating PSPs… for all calls sent to a [reseller], regardless of whether such calls are completed, is inconsistent with the Commission’s policies and rules.” Agency also denied WorldCom petition that sought a ruling “that a completed dial-around call is defined as one that is completed on the underlying carrier’s network, or one that is handed off to a [reseller’s] customer that does not have prior agreements with all PSPs to pay compensation.” FCC said it’s possible to tell difference between completed and uncompleted calls and some carriers have been able to do such “tracking.” Some IXCs have said it’s “technically infeasible to track a call to completion once it is routed to [reseller’s] switching platform,” FCC said. “Even if true, we find that there are other options available to these IXCs to track or arrange for the tracking of coinless payphone calls,” agency said in order.