An AT&T proposal to lower intrastate access rates to interstate t...
An AT&T proposal to lower intrastate access rates to interstate terminating access rate levels is “deficient,” said the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. Commenting on an AT&T request for interim declaratory ruling and limited waivers related to intercarrier compensation and…
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Universal Service Fund reform, NTCA urged the FCC to accept AT&T’s proposal only if it also adopts an NTCA plan filed last month (CD July 14 p9). NTCA agreed with AT&T that the FCC should move intrastate costs to interstate cost recovery rates including subscriber line charges or originating interstate access charges, and that the FCC should declare that Internet traffic must pay access charges. But NTCA said AT&T’s bid to lower intrastate access rates is “specifically tailored for price-cap carriers, and provides no relief to rural consumers served by [rate-of-return] carriers.” NTCA wants interstate access rates capped at current levels until a permanent access replacement mechanism is set. Access costs not recovered from capped rates would come from USF Interstate Common Line Support (ICLS), it said. NTCA filed comments two days ahead of a Thursday deadline. An AT&T spokesman said “comprehensive reform would fix the vast majority of the problems that these various petitions seek to resolve.”