Small phone companies lose money because VoIP providers pay no ac...
Small phone companies lose money because VoIP providers pay no access charges, the CEO of Laurel Highland Telephone Company told an FCC official. In an ex parte letter on the Monday meeting, CEO James Kail said his rural Pennsylvania…
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company is seeing “dramatic increases” in uncompensated VoIP-originated traffic. The company, in fact, suspects that some VoIP providers “not only are avoiding payment of access charges” but also “may be enticing other carriers to migrate their traffic” to companies such as Laurel Highlands, Kail told Ian Dillner, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s aide. In September, one company, Choice One, terminated 32% more traffic on Laurel Highland’s network, compared with August data, Kail said in the filing. “Continued indecision about applying access charges to interconnected VoIP carriers by the Commission will lead to serious erosion” of Laurel Highlands’ “access revenue base,” he said. The FCC has placed various regulatory requirements on VoIP providers, including CALEA compliance, E-911 availability, Universal Service Fund contributions, telecom relay service, regulatory fee payments and protection of customer proprietary network information, Kail said. “The Commission should now take the logical next step, clarifying that access charges apply under current rules to interconnected, interexchange voice calls irrespective of the technology used to provide the service.” Two representatives of the National Exchange Carrier Association accompanied Kail to the meeting with Dillner.