Set Traffic Pumping Benchmark at 406 Minutes Per Line, USTelecom Urges
AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, ZipDX and Level 3 signed a USTelecom letter urging the FCC to use the top 1 percent of minutes per line monthly as an indicator of so-called traffic pumping. At 2009 rates, the benchmark number would be 406 minutes per line per month limit, wrote USTelecom Vice President Glenn Reynolds, ZipDX CEO David Frankel, Verizon Vice President Donna Epps, AT&T Director Brian Benison, Qwest Vice President Melissa Newman and Level 3 Assistant Chief Legal Officer John Ryan. That would be three times the median minutes a line as established by the National Exchange Carriers Association Band 8 LECs, they said.
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The letter stems from an Aug. 30 meeting among the executives and FCC staff and was posted in docket 07-135 Tuesday. A Sprint Nextel executive also attended the meeting, but the company will file its own comments separately, a company spokesman said. The USTelecom letter said that “some of the companies” in the meeting “believe that a lower number of minutes” would make an appropriate benchmark. At a Sept. 29 meeting, Sprint urged the commission to cap average usage per line per month, “above which the LEC may assess only cost-based, just and reasonable rates,” said an ex parte filing. A lobbyist who represents mid-sized telcos said it was curious that USTelecom’s letter didn’t include CenturyLink, which is trying to acquire Qwest.
The commission is under increasing pressure to move on intercarrier compensation generally and so-called traffic pumping specifically. Among those urging swift action are CTIA, which said in a Sept. 30 letter that the industry can’t “wait for comprehensive intercarrier compensation reform.” Over the summer, the Iowa Utilities Board ruled that a spike in access billings of 100 percent or more in a period of six months or less would be a red flag for traffic pumping (CD Sept 21 p6). Meanwhile, Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., have introduced legislation of their own that would make “traffic pumping” an “unreasonable practice” under Section 201(b) of the Communications Act.
Joshua Seidemann, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance, said that he and his colleagues have had several meetings with bureau staff and commissioner legal advisors urging them to take some kind of action on “traffic pumping.” “Everyone agrees that something has to be done,” he said. “And you have to focus on what’s going to be your red flag.”
The USTelecom letter also re-urges the FCC to issue a declaratory order that would prohibit intercarrier compensation from being assessed on traffic that comes under revenue sharing agreements. Opponents include Consolidated Communications, which said in an Oct. 7 ex parte filing that “revenue sharing is not ’traffic pumping.'” AT&T has “overstated” the impact of increasing minutes of use per lines, Consolidated said.
Clients of lawyer Mark O'Connor of Lampert, O'Connor, who represents the Global Conference Partners, have suggested a rate cap for high-volume end-users but oppose a revenue-sharing ban, he said. “Recent tariff filings that contain new rates for high-volume end-users have been permitted by the FCC to take effect and demonstrate that an effective remedy has already been implemented.”