AT&T criticized CLECs that have billed the telco “substantial charges” for...
AT&T criticized CLECs that have billed the telco “substantial charges” for end-office switching services “that neither they nor their over-the-top VoIP partners provide, in clear violation of the Commission’s rules,” said an ex parte filing sent Thursday (http://bit.ly/YgDTlB). Level 3…
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and Bandwidth.com have argued that the FCC’s access charge rules let CLECs assess local-end office switching charges when they route VoIP calls to end-users. But “the limited functionality provided by the CLECs in the middle of those over-the-top VoIP calls more closely resembles tandem switching,” AT&T said. The company has been paying the CLECs for this traffic at the tandem switching rate, it said. The CLECs “deliver calls in an undifferentiated stream onto the public Internet,” which does not entitle a carrier to assess end-office switching charges, AT&T said, citing the commission’s 2011 YMax order. That order said that if exchanging packets over the Internet count as a “virtual loop,” then “so too is the entire public switched telephone network -- and the term ‘loop’ has lost all meaning.” It’s “unfair” for CLECs to charge for functions they don’t perform, AT&T said.