January 2003
Update: Avoiding Access Charges for IP Telephony
As covered in the last issue of ATS Network & Billing Update, the FCC issued a late November notice seeking comment on AT&T’s Petition for Declaratory Ruling that AT&T’s phone-to-phone IP telephony services are exempt from access charges. The notice asked for comments on December 18 and reply comments by January 7.
Soon afterwards, the Competitive Telecommunications Association (“CompTel”) filed a motion requesting the Commission to extend the period for all interested parties to file reply comments in the proceeding because of the holidays and complex nature of the proceeding. The FCC granted CompTel’s motion. Reply comments are now due January 24, 2003 instead of January 7.
Over two dozen organizations filed initial comments, including all of the major carriers (RBOCs, AT&T, Sprint, WorldCom) and the national associations (USTA, NECA, NTCA, OPASTCO), many other carriers and regional and local associations, and a couple of the state commissions. Most of the comments filed are available at the FCC’s Web site (www.fcc.gov).
In its comments, NECA argues that AT&T's assertions that this service be exempt from access charges is wrong because IP telephony bears all of the characteristics of a telecommunications service under the statute, not an information service. NECA states that granting AT&T's petition would have serious negative consequences for local exchange carriers and their customers and for the Universal Service Fund. NECA requests that the Commission dismiss AT&T's petition.
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