The FCC should ignore recent AT&T and Verizon proposals asking it...
The FCC should ignore recent AT&T and Verizon proposals asking it to preempt states on intercarrier compensation, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners said. The carriers asked the FCC to “reaffirm” that all regulated VoIP services fall under…
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federal jurisdiction. In a Tuesday letter, NARUC said the requests “mischaracterize the current state of both the law and the facts with respect to non-nomadic VoIP traffic.” The FCC never found fixed VoIP subject to federal preemption, and the 8th U.S. Appeals Court in St. Louis has affirmed that, the group said. “Because there is no question it is possible to separate intrastate non-nomadic facilities-based VoIP calls from interstate calls, the FCC has no jurisdiction over such calls.” NARUC also disputed the carriers’ request for a uniform intercarrier compensation regime applicable to all traffic. The FCC has no power to do that “through preemption or without instigating a substantial increase in State or federal universal service funds,” NARUC said. Nor can the FCC use federal funds to reduce intrastate access charges without changing separations rules, it said. “Any such proposed changes must be referred to the Federal-State Joint Board on Separations before any final FCC rules can be adopted.”