Verizon and Bandwidth.com agreed to exchange voice over Internet protocol...
Verizon and Bandwidth.com agreed to exchange voice over Internet protocol traffic at $.0007 per minute, privately held Bandwidth announced Tuesday. The deal comes just as FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is circulating a rulemaking notice that’s the first step toward overhauling…
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the Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation. The two companies are treating VoIP calls as information under Title I, not telecom services under Title II, analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said in a note. “The existence of such deals with low VoIP rates could help Verizon make arguments for why rural carriers … should be willing to back proposals to drive down access charges and other ICC rates through a regulatory glide path,” the analysts said. Pillsbury, Winthrop partner Glenn Richards, who represents several VoIP carriers, said he was “encouraged” by the announcement. “Until the FCC broadly considers intercarrier compensation, carriers and VoIP providers should be free to pursue arrangements that better account for the transition to IP networks and eliminate the unnecessary disputes that have burdened the industry,” Richards told us by e-mail.