Federal regulators are gearing up to release a document next month that will intensify the battle over revising the multi billion-dollar system governing payments among telecommunications providers to complete calls.
A notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on intercarrier compensation was distributed Wednesday to the two Democrats and three Republicans at the FCC, a source tells xchange.
The NPRM will solicit public comment on a series of questions related to intercarrier compensation, including possibly whether federal regulators should eradicate over time the complicated web of fees carriers pay one another to originate and terminate traffic.
The commission plans to vote on the item during its Feb. 10 meeting.
The FCC also is likely to rule on some narrow issues related to intercarrier compensation, including disputes over how much wireless providers should pay to complete calls over the networks of rural local phone companies under certain situations. The commission further is expected to rule on a common dispute between incumbents like Verizon Communications Inc. and competitive local phone companies involving certain interconnection facilities.
The FCC is tackling intercarrier compensation and other thorny issues at the same time the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are exploring the possibility of the first major reform of telecommunications law in more than eight years.
Numerous telecom providers have filed proposals with the FCC, recommending ways to overhaul an intercarrier compensation system that lobbyists assert no longer reflects fundamental changes in the telecom market, such as the steep decline in traditional switched long-distance traffic.
Large carriers like SBC Communications Inc. and Level 3 Communications Inc. have pressed regulators to abolish the intercarrier compensation fees over time and authorize local phone companies to raise end-user charges. These carriers argue the changes would likely have a minimal effect on consumers because the elimination of billions of dollars in access fees would encourage long-distance providers to lower rates.
But any proposal for comprehensive reform is likely to draw heavy scrutiny from small rural phone companies and lawmakers hailing from rural states like Alaska and South Dakota. Access charges represent more than $2 billion in revenue for small phone companies and up to 70 percent of their total revenue, according to the National Exchange Carrier Association.
