AT&T said it had saved about $250 million since 2000 by not payin...
AT&T said it had saved about $250 million since 2000 by not paying terminating access charges on phone-to-phone IP telephone calls, a practice the FCC recently said wasn’t allowed (CD April 22 p1). In a 10-Q filing with the…
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SEC Mon., AT&T said as a result of the FCC ruling, the company will begin paying terminating access charges on the IP calls that will amount to about $15-20 million per quarter. AT&T said the FCC was also reviewing the way it computed access charges and universal service payments for calls made on enhanced prepaid calling cards (CD June 30 p6). The company said its current treatment of these calls “has generated approximately $215 million in access savings since the third quarter of 2002, and approximately $140 million in USF contribution savings since the beginning of 1999, compared with the cost that would have been incurred by a basic prepaid card offering.” AT&T told the SEC “an adverse ruling by the FCC on the prepaid card petition would… increase the future cost of providing prepaid cards.”