The FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation order “expressly provided” that VoIP traffic would be subject to,...
The FCC’s USF/intercarrier compensation order “expressly provided” that VoIP traffic would be subject to, at most, only interstate access charges, a Verizon white paper said. “The Commission had good reason for reaching this result,” the paper said, arguing it was…
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critical to avoid a new “tax” on emerging VoIP services, and to avoid artificially subsidizing VoIP. The result was also “consistent with the industry reform plan that informed some aspects of the Order,” which proposed the commission classify all VoIP services as jurisdictionally interstate, the paper said (http://xrl.us/bmy98z). If the agency were to agree with the Frontier/Windstream position that the order didn’t touch originating access charges for VoIP calls, it would impose “artificially high intrastate originating access charges” about four times higher than interstate charges, Verizon said. Whatever the commission does, it “must not” make the “utterly irrational” decision to expand intrastate access charges to include traffic that starts in IP and ends in TDM, the paper said. Verizon was the latest to add its voice to the interexchange carriers and cable providers who oppose the Frontier/Windstream petition. At a meeting with several FCC officials Wednesday, Verizon executives said this result “strikes the right balance and is consistent with the Commission’s objectives in the Order.”