FCC denies several petitions for reconsideration from rural call completion order

filed by USTelecom and ITTA and eased some of the order’s record keeping requirements on intraLATA toll calls. The order was adopted Nov. 4. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly concurred. Denied was Comptel’s petition that more smaller providers be excused from record-keeping and reporting requirements. The rural call completion order had only required compliance from long-distance voice providers with more than 100,000 domestic retail subscriber lines. Also denied were Sprint’s motion for reconsideration of the commission’s decision to use the call completion reports collected as the basis for subsequent enforcement action. Sprint also requested surveys by rural local exchange carriers used in the call completion orders be made available for independent review, and said the commission’s estimates on the regulatory burdens of the order were too low. Denied as well was Transcom’s petition to exempt intermediate providers that aren't common carriers from a rule barring originating providers from sending an audible ringing sound to callers before the terminating provider has signaled the called party is being alerted. The granted exemption for USTelecom and ITTA covers intraLATA toll calls that are carried entirely over the covered provider’s network. O’Rielly in a statement said the FCC “should root out call completion problems, [but] it should not take procedural and legal shortcuts along the way that undermine the agency’s credibility across proceedings.” He cited the denial of Sprint’s petition to make the RLEC surveys available, saying the commission should have made them available under protective order if necessary. He also called the order’s cost-benefit analysis “cursory,” saying they make “no attempt to quantify the costs of the rules or to quantify and compare the benefits.” Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement that Thursday’s order “paves the way” for data collection requirements “to become fully effective” and said he has directed commission staff to seek Office of Management and Budget approval to proceed within three business days. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the data collection effort isn’t enough. “Analyzing data will help isolate and investigate the issue, but it will not completely solve the problem,” she said in a statement, saying she hoped the commission will “take permanent action to address rural call completion issues as expeditiously as possible.” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the decision “resolves several pending petitions for reconsideration that will allow us to move forward with putting these rules into effect. Going forward, I hope we can move faster to bring an end to this persistent problem.”