AT&T last week asked the FCC to address what it called “nefarious” inter-carrier compensation(ICC) practices including unusually high tandem switching and transport access charges and non-competitive 800-number database dips. In a blog post AT&T noted that such practices are counter-productive…
Cloud contact center application provider InContact has agreed to pay a $100,000 civil penalty and implement a compliance program in a rural call completion settlement with the FCC. It’s the smallest of five such settlements that have been made with…
Rural telcos that have problems with calls not going through to their customers from Verizon customers now have a hot line to call at Verizon. In addition, Verizon plans to award $30,000 to $50,000 for an academic study on methods…
The latest attempt to stop problems with calls not going through to rural areas comes from two U.S. senators, who have introduced the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act. The legislation, introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Jon…
The FCC has underestimated what it will cost communications service providers to comply with rural call completion reporting requirements, says Comptel. “The FCC has failed to provide any, much less specific and objective, support for its estimate of the burden…
Small rural telecommunications service providers experienced a setback Friday when an appeals court upheld Federal Communications Commission authority to transition today’s voice-focused Universal Service program to a broadband-focused Connect America Fund (CAF) and to reform the inter-carrier compensation system. Connect…
States must act – and act promptly—to determine how they will address an impending shortfall in funding for rural broadband and telecom services, according to a new report issued today by telecom advisory firm Balhoff & Williams, LLC. “Our analysis…
A report issued by the Federal Communications Commission last week recommends a substantial reduction in the rate of return that the nation’s smallest telephone companies earn through the inter-carrier compensation (ICC) system. Since 1990 that rate has been 11.25% but…
Level 3 has agreed to make a $975,000 “voluntary contribution” to the U.S. Treasury as part of the settlement of a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the carrier’s rural call completion practices. In a consent decree, Level 3 also agreed…
More than two-thirds (69%) of small telephone companies have postponed or canceled plans to upgrade their landline communications networks because of uncertainty about Universal Service and inter-carrier compensation reform, according to data released today by rural broadband association NTCA. The…
AT&T’s proposal to shut down much of its traditional telecom infrastructure was bound to shake up the telecom industry – and evidence of that shakeup came last week in the form of an FCC filing from the National Telecommunications Cooperative…
A proposal to phase out a statewide high-cost Universal Service program in Colorado has attracted the ire of CenturyLink, which is the incumbent local carrier in a large part of the state and a major recipient of funding from the…
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