Verizon, Level 3 Disagree Over VoIP Access Charges
LECs that partner with over-the-top VoIP providers shouldn't be allowed to collect local end-office switched access charges, Verizon Assistant General Counsel-Federal and State Legal Affairs Curtis Groves and Executive Director-Federal Regulatory Affairs Alan Buzacott told aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel…
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and Ajit Pai Oct. 30, said an ex parte filing in FCC docket 10-90. An order being circulated at the FCC would say LECs and VoIP providers are entitled to the access charges (see 1410280032), but Verizon argued neither LECs nor VoIP providers perform "the necessary switching, or controls the switching decisions, that route a VoIP call to (or from) the VoIP customer over the broadband line that connects to the end user’s premises.” Companies that provide “over-the-top VoIP services -- e.g., Skype and Vonage -- have not invested in facilities to serve the end user customers who initiate and receive voice calls. Neither have their LEC partners,” Verizon said. ISPs, not the LECs or VoIP providers, “own, control, or maintain the physical routers, lines, and other equipment that performs analogous switching functions,” Verizon said. Also representing Verizon was Kellogg Huber’s Scott Angstreich, said the filing. Level 3 “uses the exact same facilities to provide local switching for calls terminated to TDM loops, over cable VoIP facilities and over-the-top,” Harris Wiltshire’s John Nakahata, representing Level 3, wrote in a letter to the agency sent and posted on Monday. To allow the access charges terminated to TDM and cable VoIP facilities, but not over-the-top VoIP, “moves in exactly the wrong direction” from the agency’s USF overhaul order, he said.