Parties read what they liked into the FCC’s VoIP notice released ...

Parties read what they liked into the FCC’s VoIP notice released late Wed. (CD March 11 p1). SBC officials said they were cheered by the section on carrier compensation in which the FCC said: “As a policy matter, we believe that any service provider that sends traffic to the PSTN [public switched telecom network] should be subject to similar compensation obligations, irrespective of whether the traffic originates on the PSTN, on an IP network or on a cable network.” SBC read the language as saying any carrier that interconnects with the PSTN must pay access charges, which appeared to include carriers such as AT&T that have IP backbones but connect to the circuit-switched PSTN. SBC said it “wholeheartedly agreed with the FCC that all communications providers should be subject to similar and equitable compensation obligations when they send traffic to local telephone networks.” AT&T, on the other hand, said it was pleased that “even the FCC has recognized that the record being developed in the broader VoIP proceeding could influence the outcome of any of the pending VoIP petitions.” AT&T said “this presents strong evidence for not setting the AT&T petition apart with a premature ruling that may be nullified in the broader proceeding.” There’s been debate about whether action on the AT&T petition should be held until the end of the VoIP rulemaking or whether the FCC should act on it now because the rulemaking could take as long as a year. AT&T’s petition seeks a ruling that it doesn’t have to pay access charges for calls that use the company’s VoIP backbone. In the meantime, AT&T hasn’t been paying traditional access charges, according to the Bells who want action on the petition as soon as possible. The FCC said “the cost of the PSTN should be borne equitably among those that use it in similar ways.” The agency asked for comment on what authority it could use to require payment for access, whether charges “should be the same as the access charges assessed on providers of telecommunications services or should the charges be computed and assessed differently?” The agency emphasized that by asking these questions, it’s “not addressing whether charges apply or do not apply under existing law.” The FCC added in a footnote that: “We expressly preserve the Commission’s flexibility to address one or all of the petitions discussed above by issuing a declaratory ruling or rulings before the culmination of [this] proceeding.”