[VoiceOps] FCC issues Declaratory Ruling on Call Termination

Wed Feb 8 14:29:11 EST 2012

The big fix is the 'bill and keep' rule that is expected to kill all the traffic pumpers...

# # #
In that same Order, the Commission adopted
rules that should ultimately address the root causes of many rural call completion problems. In
particular, in comprehensively reforming ICC, the Order adopted a bill-and-keep methodology for all ICC
traffic, and adopted a transition to gradually reduce most termination charges, which, at the end of the
transition, should eliminate the primary incentives for cost-saving practices that appear to be undermining
the reliability of telephone service.
# # #

It'll take a decade to get there:

# # #
The transition to a bill-and-keep methodology for most terminating charges is nine years for rate-of-return
carriers.  See ICC/USF Transformation Order at para. 801 & Figure 9.  See also 47 C.F.R. §§ 51.907, 51.909.
# # #

This ruling seems to read more as  'stay the course'.  Throttling has always been prohibited, but when was the last time the commission dropped the hammer on anyone about it?

David Hiers

CCIE (R/S, V), CISSP
ADP Dealer Services
2525 SW 1st Ave.
Suite 300W
Portland, OR 97201
o: 503-205-4467
f: 503-402-3277

###Please note my email address is changing:
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From: voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org] On Behalf Of Scott Berkman
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 17:20
To: 'Carlos Alvarez'; VoiceOps at voiceops.org
Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] FCC issues Declaratory Ruling on Call Termination

+1 on Carlos' note about the free services that are the underlying cause for this issue.  They put the services in these locations on purpose knowing full well that the low costs they were paying for termination meant higher costs on the other side.  As those services grew, there were obvious consequences to the capacity the IXC's had into those areas.

As I was once told by someone at a major carrier that may or may not have been mentioned by name in the OP, at some point when the call volumes to a certain area are exponentially larger than what they should be based on the actual population or even population growth expectations, it doesn't make sense to build out the needed capacity to serve that growing volume of calls if there are no paying end users to help cover the costs.

I find it "interesting" that not only did the FCC ignore the underlying cause of these issues in the ruling, but it seems they have basically now given the free conference and similar service providers the go ahead to keep doing what they are doing without consequence, knowing the FCC has their back.

As far as GV, they are not a "carrier" in the traditional sense because they don't operate as a CLEC or IXC in any way that I have seen yet.  For inbound, all their TNs (at least the ones I have checked) are ported to either Level 3 or Bandwidth.com, which basically just makes them a big VoIP customer of the big carriers.  Outbound is a little harder to trace, but in all likelihood they mainly use the same carriers, perhaps some others as well, so for their customers (or is it users for a free service?) to stop having issues the IXC's they use will have to upgrade their trunking capacities into the affected "rural" areas.

  -Scott

From: voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org [mailto:voiceops-bounces at voiceops.org] On Behalf Of Carlos Alvarez
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 11:58 AM
To: VoiceOps at voiceops.org
Subject: Re: [VoiceOps] FCC issues Declaratory Ruling on Call Termination

I'm optimistic about this, though not knowledgeable enough to know the full legal implications.  But it does seem like GV/L3/others will be forced to change their ways.  Though maybe not GV, are they even considered a "carrier?"

I wonder what will happen to those "free" fax and conference call providers who caused the problem to start with?  Can the locals refuse service to them?  Will the FCC look at their practices independently?

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 9:13 PM, Frank Bulk <frnkblk at iname.com<mailto:frnkblk at iname.com>> wrote:
The FCC issued a Declaratory Ruling today in regards to call termination.  The ruling prevents originating carriers from passing the buck to LCR, puts responsibility on them if they are aware of degraded service, and attaches some stiff fines.

It would seem to me that this would prevent Google Voice and others, such as Level3, from not terminating to certain (more expensive) NPA/NXXes.

Frank

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Carlos Alvarez
TelEvolve
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