AT&T Wireless and other mobile operators balked at an AT&T petit...

said the FCC “blatantly discriminated” against wireline IXCs by allowing CMRS-based interstate long distance providers to charge averaged universal service recovery fees. The FCC decision raised to 28.5% from 15% the safe harbor for wireless carriers that chose not to break out the amount of interstate calling they carried. The FCC said carriers could rely on the 28.5% safe harbor or break out the percentage of revenue based on interstate calling. “In contrast, wireline providers must charge recovery fees based on a specific customer’s interstate usage,” AT&T argued. “It is time for the Commission to end this ’tangled web’ of special relief for CMRS interstate long distance providers.” It urged the FCC to create a methodology for wireless carriers to conduct and update traffic studies used to set a carrier-specific factor for allocating revenue to interstate traffic. AT&T Wireless last week asked the Commission to dismiss AT&T’s petition as untimely. Even on its merits, AT&T Wireless said, the FCC should reject the challenge because the agency’s decision doesn’t discriminate against interstate long distance carriers. Instead, it said, the order “simply takes into account that wireless carriers do not have the ability to determine the proportion of interstate traffic carried on their networks on a customer- specific basis, either for reporting or recovery purposes.” AT&T Wireless said AT&T never had challenged the earlier USF order that set the original 15% safe harbor for wireless carriers, so its attempt to challenge the idea of a safe harbor by seeking reconsideration of this order should be thrown out. Nextel also opposed AT&T’s challenge. Rather than unfairly favoring wireless providers, it said, the order clarifies that those that “have developed the capability of sampling traffic flows are permitted to estimate in good faith the breakdown of their interstate and international telecommunications traffic as a proxy for interstate revenue.” Nextel said carriers that had developed that capability shouldn’t be penalized by being forced to use the nearly doubled safe harbor percentage of 28.5% or investing in new billing and accounting systems to capture traffic and revenue information. CTIA also opposed the AT&T petition, saying: “In setting the revised safe harbor… the Commission was careful to balance the goal of encouraging reporting of actual interstate revenues with the realization that some wireless carriers are unable to report the exact jurisdictional breakdown of traffic.”