NTCA Suggests FCC Modify, Not Scrap, 2013 Rural Call Completion Rules; CTIA Urges Waiver
NTCA took issue with FCC rural call completion proposals in a draft Further NPRM on the agenda for Thursday's commissioners' meeting. The rural telco group suggested the commission modify its 2013 reporting and record-keeping requirements for larger local, long-distance, wireless and VoIP providers, not eliminate them, as proposed in the draft (see 1706230040). But CTIA said the FCC should immediately waive the rules -- to reduce "unnecessary" burdens they impose on covered providers -- until a final order takes effect. NCTA (the cable group) asked the agency to ensure covered providers aren't held liable for good-faith efforts to implement new rules on carrier monitoring and accountability. Some parties had discussions with agency officials before lobbying restrictions took effect.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
NTCA said it supported the FCC's goal to streamline and "right-size" regulations but said some proposals could undermine efforts to improve rural call completion (RCC). It said 29 percent of its members recently surveyed experienced RCC problems in the previous month and 10 percent reported weekly problems. It said "complaints from consumers and rural carriers declined significantly" during a 2015-2017 data reporting period (after 2013 rules took effect) compared with pre-reporting periods.
"[I]t appears that the record-keeping and reporting requirements have actually served as an effective incentive for rural call completion, with 'sunshine serving as the best disinfectant' when covered providers must recognize that their performance (or lack thereof) will be visible to the Commission," said an NTCA filing posted Friday in docket 13-39 on a meeting with staffers for all three commissioners and two bureaus. "Removing that 'sunshine' now could very well lead to backsliding, especially without an effective substitute in terms of any continued incentives to complete calls."
Call completion also continues to be an issue for WTA's rural telco members, Vice President Derrick Owens told us. "Unfortunately, this problem has been going on for so long that I think many of our members’ customers have grown tired of this problem not being fixed and have decided that nothing is going to change and so they aren’t filing complaints at the Commission like before," he emailed. "I don’t think more studies is going to change things. It would be good for the Commission to act now to give our members and their customers assurances that their calls will be completed and that bad actors will be dealt with. We’re still supportive of the legislative fixes working through Congress."
CTIA said relief can't come too soon from rules that "impose significant burdens" on covered providers. "CTIA members report that routine network changes can require tens or even hundreds of hours of work to update Form 480 reporting systems. These changes come with multimillion-dollar price tags," said a CTIA filing. It asked the FCC to include a waiver from the rules in its FNPRM until a final order takes effect: "This is the same approach the Commission recently took in the payphone proceeding" (see 1706220036).
If there are problems, the rules should be changed in a balanced way to improve the information and reduce provider burdens while retaining the "sunshine" incentives, NTCA said. If the FCC nevertheless proposes to end the reporting duties, it said the agency should "tentatively conclude that covered originating providers are still required to collect and maintain call detail records and certify to same. The failure to maintain these records was cited by the FCC in its 2013 Order as a hindrance to complaint investigations." NTCA also suggested the commission "seek comment on a tentative conclusion that specific carrier 'best practices' be made mandatory." There's industry consensus that RCC problems can be reduced "if originating providers practice good network management and limit the number of 'hops' among intermediate carriers," it said, citing an Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions standard and handbook.
“We look forward to working with the FCC to make sure whatever is adopted is efficient and less burdensome, but we have to make sure it’s effective,” NTCA Vice President Jill Canfield told us. She said FCC enforcement threats and voluntary best practices weren't enough. She suggested a current FCC "safe harbor" -- giving covered providers relief if they minimize the number of intermediate carriers in call routing -- had helped.
In a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, an NCTA/cable official "suggested that the Commission make clear that the proposals in the Notice would not impose liability on 'covered providers' that make a good-faith effort to comply with any new monitoring obligations and that hold intermediate providers accountable for problems identified through such monitoring," said a filing.
CCMI telecom consultant Andrew Regitsky said the only way to eliminate the RCC problem is to move all interstate and intrastate access charge rates to "bill-and-keep," or zero. "If some carriers perceive there is money to be made by taking advantage of the arbitrage that continues to exist in inter-carrier compensation, rural call completion shenanigans will continue," he said in a June 30 blog post.