Tele-Tech Updates Newsletter

AT&T Purchase Approved by FCC

The Federal Communications Commission has approved the AT&T purchase of 12MHz of wireless spectrum that covers 60 percent of the U.S.

AT&T bought the spectrum from Aloha Spectrum Holdings. The spectrum, in the 700MHz band, covers 196 million U.S. residents and includes 72 of the top 100 media markets in the country. Aloha acquired the spectrum in earlier FCC auctions and from other auction winners. This portion of the 700MHz spectrum is not part of the FCC auction now in progress.

The FCC approved the sale despite concerns expressed by the commission's two Democratic members. AT&T announced in October of 2007 that it intended to buy the spectrum for US$2.5 billion. The company said then it planned to use the spectrum for broadcast video or for two-way communications such as voice, data or multicast content.

The 700MHz spectrum band carries wireless signals three to four times farther than some higher spectrum bands, making it optimal for long-range broadband networks.

WV Lawmaker Suggests New Area Code for Cell Phones

Not everyone is happy with the West Virginia Public Service Commission's (PSC) decision to implement the new area code with a geographic split. Delegate Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, recently suggested to his fellow House members that they support a resolution that would apply the new area code to all cell phones and leave the 304 area code for landlines.

Blair estimates that up to half the existing numbers using the 304 area code are probably cell phone numbers.

The geographic split has already been criticized by a number of lawmakers, who have said they prefer an overlay plan, which would leave existing numbers unchanged and assign the second area code to any new numbers in the state.

Blair believes his approach is an even better solution.

His idea would have to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission because it deals with assigning an area code to a specific communication tool, the cell phone.

Despite the outcry from legislators, a formal request for another hearing from the PSC can only come from parties, such as telephone companies, already involved in the case.

Product Spotlight
AccuMTA

Tele-Tech's service provider clients can now receive a simple report enabling them to bill wireless carriers accurately for access charges. Based on a study of call detail records (CDRs) from a customer's network, Tele-Tech's AccuMTA uses our MTA IQ database to determine the true percentage of access-billable traffic in a given sample.

Per FCC guidelines, carriers originating wireless calls that cross major trading area (MTA) boundaries are subject to terminating access charges. But with MTA borders not mirroring other telecommunications or geographic boundaries, carriers had no definitive way to determine what percentage of traffic passed from a given wireless carrier was interMTA.

Tele-Tech introduced AccuFactor in 2005 to enable service providers to determine the percentage of local vs. toll traffic on their networks for intercarrier billing purposes. AccuFactor uses our industry-leading local calling area tables as the basis for its reporting. Now, AccuMTA moves the process to the wireless world by comparing the client's CDRs to our database that maps NPA-NXXs to MTAs. And with recent attention on billing access charges for wireless originated calls, AccuMTA, and the MTA IQ database itself, have proven invaluable in providing the independent, supporting detail it takes to get those access bills paid.

For more information and a free sample report showing the percentage of interMTA traffic passed from one wireless carrier to one of your switches for a period of one week, please contact Kimberly Russo at 800-433-6181 x7103 or krusso@telecomdb.com.

NPA Updates

Geographic Split for 304
A geographic split will be implemented in the 304 area code of West Virginia. The area code is expected to exhaust in the fourth quarter of 2008. A geographic split means some people who now have the 304 area code will be receiving the new area code. No official announcement of the new area code has been released.

The 304 area code will apply to the south-western half of the state and the new area code will apply to the northern and eastern half. The geographic split will be made along the existing Charleston-Clarksburg LATA.