Draft Rural Call Completion Rules Slammed by NTCA, Mostly Supported by ACA, NCTA

and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, the association said in docket 13-39. NTCA supported cutting red tape but said the order “would have a negative impact on the continuing problem of calls failing to complete to rural businesses and consumers.” Taking away reports “could very well lead to backsliding,” it said. An alternative is to mandate standards and best practices from ATIS, NTCA said. The agency should require providers respond to rural call completion complaints within a business day, the group said. Rules should sunset after three years and revert to current rules absent a finding the new ones worked, it said. NTCA urged the agency to delete a proposal from its draft NPRM to eliminate recordkeeping and retention rules: “There is no basis in the record to permit carriers to eliminate evidence of the success or failure of their intermediate provider monitoring efforts.” The American Cable Association and NCTA met Tuesday with an aide to O’Rielly and Thursday with an aide to Pai, said a notice. The groups supported the draft order as removing “regulatory ‘underbrush’ without undermining the Commission’s goal of reducing call completion.” They raised concerns some parts “suggest that originating providers are solely responsible any time a call fails to complete.” The FCC should “clarify that the rules focus on persistent problems with rural call completion by originating or intermediate providers, and not isolated call failures,” ACA and NCTA said. “Explicitly state that an originating provider that engages in reasonable monitoring efforts will not be held responsible under the proposed rules for conduct of intermediate providers that is not identified, or could not be identified."