More than 100 local telephone companies urged every senator to en...
More than 100 local telephone companies urged every senator to encourage the FCC to reject AT&T’s petition to the FCC to exempt VoIP from access charges. The letter, sent Mon. on USTA letterhead and signed by 121 carriers, said…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
“allowing AT&T to continue to improperly avoid payment of access charges subsidizes AT&T stockholders at the expense of ordinary telephone rate payers who must make up in telephone rates the revenue lost because of AT&T’s failure to pay what it legally owes.” The letter urged senators not to be swayed by AT&T’s arguments that VoIP is an Internet service and that rejecting AT&T’s petition is tantamount to “taxing the Internet to subsidize the telephone network.” The current rules are clear and don’t create an exemption in the access charge regime for IP traffic, the letter said. “The FCC’s continued inaction places USTA member companies at risk because access charges account for more than $2 billion in rural company revenues alone,” the letter said. Exemption of access charges for IP telephony would threaten the financial viability of small- and mid-sized rural carriers and threaten the universal service fund, the letter said. The carriers asked senators to urge the FCC to take quick action to reject AT&T’s petition.