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‘Missoula Plan’ To Tackle Intercarrier Comp and Phantom Traffic
By Susana Schwartz
The very “visible” problem of phantom traffic continues, but plans are underway to attack the issue.
December 22nd is the deadline for companies like AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Global Crossing, Level 3 Communications and the myriad proponents of the “Missoula Plan” for intercarrier compensation reform, such as the Rural Alliance and OPASTCO (Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies).
The Missoula Plan is a comprehensive intercarrier compensation reform effort that asks the FCC to approve a uniform industry process for creating and exchanging CDRs.
Just a few weeks ago, proponents of the plan issued an addendum to provide a more comprehensive framework for phantom traffic.
“It fleshed out more detail about the phantom traffic solution than was proffered in the larger filing,” explains Stuart Polikoff, director of government relations for OPASTCO.
“What’s nice about the plan,” he adds, “is it not only defines a path to resolving the issue of phantom traffic, but it pushes for an interim plan so as not to hold up the phantom traffic issue until the Missoula Plan is reviewed. It reflects the need for an immediate order on phantom traffic.”
As a result, the FCC has put out a request for separate comment about the phantom traffic proposal.
Rural and smaller carriers hope that the Missoula Plan will bring about a unification of interstate and intrastate access rates, thus removing the incentive for access rate arbitrage. Currently, there are different rates for interstate and intrastate access charges, as well as for reciprocal compensation.
At the heart of the plan is the “restructure mechanism,” which would allow for the recovery of lost revenue for lower access rates.
“If the FCC is busting at the seams to get to this, it could be February or March when the FCC docket work gets underway, but we expect it will take longer than that,” says Peter Bluhm, policy director at the Vermont Public Service Board. He has a stake in the reform as a member of NARUC (the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners).
If the FCC is not so anxious, supporters will push for interim action that would stave off egregious abuses. The urgency is evident in particular when people talk about the new dimension of phantom traffic brought on by increases in VoIP. They claim that calls are not on the Internet long enough to trace, as they terminate on public networks.
Because most phantom traffic would become billable traffic if all originating carriers had to populate the calling party number and called party fields in the initial address message, many would like to see the carriers required to accurately transmit that information to the terminating end office by an “exchange message interface process.”
“Revenue assurance systems are used to detect anomalies within the CDR stream as a means of identifying access rate arbitrage,” said Greg Le Neveu, senior vice president for Subex Azure. “By mandating a uniform process for CDR creation and exchange, the Missoula Plan will allow operators to refocus more resources on maximizing legitimate revenue and lowering costs, as opposed to fighting intercarrier abuse that continues to proliferate through the industry.”
The transiting carrier would have to provide rural ILECs with call records for any calls with incomplete signaling information. Rural ILECs have proposed penalties in cases where transiting carriers do not provide the data, such as allowing the terminating rural carrier to bill the connecting transiting carrier for unidentifiable calls.
Because some estimates blame phantom traffic for up to 20 percent of carrier revenue losses, vendors of network equipment have tried to make improvements in SS7 signaling and switches. However, carriers claim much more needs to be done.
In its Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for intercarrier compensation, the FCC concedes that current protocols and legislation are “difficult to sustain in the current marketplace.”
Under the current rules, the rate for intercarrier compensation depends on three factors: the type of traffic at issue, the types of carriers involved and the end points of the communication.
These distinctions have been found to create “opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and incentives for inefficient investment and deployment decisions,” according to the FCC notice.
For that reason, the FCC is listening to the calls for changes in the federal and state access charge rules governing the payments by IXCs and CMRS providers to LECs that originate and terminate LD calls. The FCC also wants to see changes in the reciprocal compensation rules established under section 251(b)(5) of the Telecommunications Act, which govern the compensation for transporting and terminating calls not subject to access charges. It is believed that the current rules provide too many opportunities for arbitrage arrangements that add northing to the marketplace and encourage the wrong sorts of business investments.
IPTV, digital TV, video content and VoIP tops in 2007, survey predicts
In August 2006 Amdocs commissioned Frost & Sullivan to conduct an international survey among 200 service provider decision makers in the telecom, cable and satellite industries in the U.S. and U.K. The survey forecasts service providers will significantly increase investment in customer service, network infrastructure and IP-based services, as well as build their digital content offerings.
The findings concluded that nearly 67 percent of respondents plan to increase their spending on customer service enhancements over the next year, with the average investment increase projected at 31 percent. Also, service providers are planning to put more money into network infrastructure, with the average investment increase expected to be 33 percent.
The study also reveals that IPTV, digital TV, video content and VoIP are expected to be the top products and services for 2007. The study portends spending in network infrastructure for those areas to increase by 77 percent, 81 percent, 71 percent and 76 percent, respectively.
Intrado Pushes E911 Compliance Through Forum
Intrado urged the FCC recently to bolster efforts to make sure E-911 does not get degraded. Intrado has rounded up several leading 9-1-1 technology providers to participate in the Intrado Intelligent Emergency Network (IEN) Connect program, assembled as a forum for testing systems and services that must interoperate within the Next Generation 9-1-1 environment. Services are tested for their compliance with the ATIS approved Emergency Services Messaging Interface (ESMI) standard, which defines the interfaces needed to expand the amount of data that can come into public safety answering points (PSAPs).
AT&T Launches Mobile WiMAX
After stopping previous Mobile WiMAX trials in their tracks, AT&T debuted its commercial Mobile WiMAX network in Pahrump, NV. The technology is a means to offer fixed broadband services in places where DSL is not prevalent. AT&T is working with Soma Networks to roll out the service in the 45,000-person locale. The 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz bands will be some of the first frequencies for which the WiMAX Forum will certify equipment, so the WCS band used by AT&T will necessitate a push by the carrier to get vendors to pursue the WCS band for products.
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