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-September
-August
-July
-June
-May
-April
-March
-January
-December
-FCC Gives VoIP Providers A Reprieve
-AOL Introduces Total Talk
-FCC Grants Qwest
Forbearance in Omaha
-New Taxes for Net phone Users?
-Sprint Nextel Ahead of Schedule
-MCI Introduces Extended
Advantage Portfolio for VoIP Business Customers
-Michigan's Upper Peninsula Receives Extended Local Calling
-Verizon Receives Waiver
for Pricing Flexibility for Advanced Services
-Overlay of California NPA
310 Planned
-10-Digit
Dialing Begins for Tennessee Border Counties Calling North
Georgia
-International
Dialing Database
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FCC Gives VoIP Providers A Reprieve
As reported in the September issue of
Tele-Tech Updates, the FCC required "VoIP providers to
disconnect any customer who has not acknowledged warnings
regarding e911 shortcomings by the end of August," which
prompted many providers to file waivers saying that the
timeframe was unreasonable.
In late August
however, the FCC granted an extension of the original
order-giving providers till the 28th of September
to notify its customers. But in a surprise reprieve late on
September 27th the FCC granted another extension
of the deadline allowing providers until the end of October
to notify their customers of VoIP's E911 shortcomings.
The decision came
a day before the previous deadline, which would have caused
VoIP providers to disconnect service to approximately 10,000
of the 2.7 million subscribers nationwide.
The FCC removed
the disconnection requirement for providers who have
received confirmation from at least 90 percent of their
subscribers. However, they are expected to continue
attempting contact with the non-responders and report to the
commission when they have reached 100 percent compliance.
The FCC is
reporting that at least "21 providers have received notice
from all customers that they are aware of the 911
limitations; another 32 VoIP operators report that 90
percent or more of their customers have made such
indications."
On the other
hand, providers who are under the 90 percent mark will have
until October 31st to attain that level and avoid
disconnects. The FCC is requiring a status report be filed
by the 25th of October. The report should contain
the percentage of acknowledgments and details on the efforts
to contact those who have not responded.
An estimated
third or more of the providers fell below the 90 percent
threshold.
AOL
Introduces Total Talk
America Online's new VoIP service,
Total Talk, a successor to AOL Internet Phone, which was
a VoIP service for America Online users only, will be
available in the US and Canada on Oct. 4 and will offer
full-featured VoIP services to users of any broadband
service.
Total Talk hosts a myriad of services including the
typical Caller ID, E911, three-way calling and voice
mail. However it also "offers a very rich set of
features that none of our competitors matches," said
Ragui Kamel, Vice President and General Manager of AOL
Voice Services. "AOL voice mail actually e-mails the
voicemail to users as an MP3 file. Users can also be
alerted to messages via SMS messaging on their cell
phones."
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FCC
Grants Qwest Forbearance in Omaha
The FCC
granted Qwest partial relief from price and other
regulatory controls in Omaha. The FCC said the relief
of certain "monopoly" or "dominant carrier" regulations
was in large part due to the substantial
telecommunications investments made by Cox
Communications.
Specifically, the Commission granted Qwest relief of its
obligations to provide certain network elements in 9 of
24 wire center service areas in the Omaha MSA.
Additionally, the commission agreed to remove price
caps, rate-of-return regulations and notice provisions
for certain retail services.
The
Commission continues to require Qwest to allow
competitors access to local loops, call transport and
switching services at "just and reasonable prices."
A
six-month transition period to permit competing carriers
to migrate existing customers to alternative facilities
was also adopted by the FCC.
For
more information or to read the entire FCC news release
please visit
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-261122A1.pdf
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New
Taxes for Net phone Users?
A new proposal, released by the FCC in late August, may
require more companies to pay into the Universal Service
Fund. The proposal, written by now retired Michigan
Public Service commissioner, Robert Nelson, raises the
possibility of new taxes being levied on Internet phone
users.
"It is
imperative that ...all carriers that utilize the public
switched telephone network are required to contribute to
the USF as soon as possible," Nelson said. He
continued, "The dramatic decrease in traditional
long-distance wireline traffic and the increase in the
use of VoIP and the deployment of IP networks has
changed the dynamics of USF so irrevocably that
immediate attention to the issue is required."
Ultimately this would mean a tax would be implemented on
Net phone users who don't currently pay into the USF,
and for those companies who do pay into the fund an
increase in rates would likely occur because their
contribution to the USF would increase.
In
recent months, FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin, has said that
new regulations should require anyone with a phone
number to pay into the fund. However, the FCC has not
made any official move towards changing the USF
regulations. It is likely that the issue will be raised
again as lawmakers begin the process of rewriting the
Telecommunication Act of 1996.
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Sprint
Nextel Ahead of Schedule
In late September, Sprint Corporation reported that its
acquisition of Nextel Communications was ahead of
schedule. The $35 billion acquisition was completed
last month and already Sprint Nextel is boasting an
increase in expected cost savings from the combination.
Sprint Nextel increased
the expected cost savings from its recent merger by $2.5
billion to $14.5 billion. Breaking down the savings,
the company said $1.6 billion would come from increased
revenue from improved customer retention and from being
able to sell Sprint services to former Nextel customers
and vice versa. An additional $3.7 billion would come
from not having to duplicate network upgrades and from
sharing cell towers; $4.4 billion would come from
consolidating back office operations; $2.3 billion from
smaller network operating costs; and $3.5 billion from
savings tied to the company's larger scale.
With all of its recent
and pending upgrades Sprint Nextel anticipates an
additional 1.2 million wireless subscribers in the third
quarter bringing its total to 45 million.
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MCI
Introduces Extended Advantage Portfolio for VoIP
Business Customers
MCI has
extended its VoIP suite to add two new solutions to its
Advantage portfolio. Along with its flagship enterprise
solutions, Host IP Centrex and IP Integrated Access, the
two new solutions offered to MCI customers are managed
IP PBX and IP Trunking Services.
The new Managed IP PBX
Services enables "customers to offload the management of
their premise-based IP telephony systems. The new
offering is based on Cisco's cost efficient and highly
scalable CallManager platform with assistance in the
design and implementation from NEC Unified Solutions, a
leader in converged voice and data solutions. MCI will
provide the ongoing management and continuous
optimization of the IP PBX solution, as well as aid in
the planning, designing, and implementation phases of
the service, delivering a true end-to-end solution for
enterprise customers."
Additionally, the new
Advantage IP Trunking Service allows "customers to use
converged access to carry local, long distance and data
traffic, eliminating the need for multiple access
facilities for each separate service. MCI's new service
also performs the conversion and termination of VoIP
calls via its network-based IP gateways."
Benefits of MCI's new
offerings include the ability for customers to tap into
enhanced voice and data applications, allowing them to
increase their productivity both in and out of the
office with a variety of Web-based features.
To read all the benefits
MCI's new portfolio has to offer
click here.
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Michigan's Upper Peninsula Receives Extended Local Calling
The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved a
revised plan, originally filed in March, by Chippewa County
Telephone, Hiawatha Telephone Company, Midway Telephone
Company and Ontonagon County Telephone Company to expand
local calling in the Upper Peninsula.
The revised
plan, which expands local calling to the entire Upper
Peninsula, proposed a rate increase of $5.69 per line per
month for residential customers and $7.42 per line per month
for business consumers.
In addition,
MPSC approved an expanded local calling plan and rate
increase for Upper Peninsula Telephone Company customers.
Rates for the expanded calling plan will increase by $6.95
the first year followed by an increase of $1 for the next
two years. Customers will also receive a 2,000 minutes per
month calling allowance per line per month into the
specified exchanges with additional minutes billed at $.05
per minute.
Verizon
Receives Waiver for Pricing Flexibility for Advanced
Services
The
FCC granted Verizon a waiver to exercise pricing flexibility
for advanced services that rely on packet technology.
Verizon refers to these services as ‘fast-packet' services,
which are comprised of packet-switching equipment and
facilities that reach enterprise customer through dedicated
special access lines to form high-capacity data networks.
The waiver allows Verizon
to exercise Phase I pricing flexibility in the same areas it
already qualifies for Phase I or II pricing flexibility for
other special access services. In addition, Verizon was
granted the opportunity to apply for Phase II pricing
flexibility for these packet-based advanced services by
satisfying the competitive requirements specified in the
pricing flexibility rules. Therefore, Verizon may now offer
individually negotiated contracts for its "fast-packet"
services.
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Overlay of California NPA 310 Planned
The relief
method chosen for NPA 310, which serves the western portion
of Los Angeles County in Southern California, will be an
overlay. The new 424 NPA will serve the same geographic area
that NPA 310 currently serves, which will make ten-digit
dialing of all calls in the area mandatory. Permissive
ten-digit dialing is scheduled to begin December 31, 2005,
with mandatory ten-digit dialing starting July 26, 2006.
10-Digit Dialing Begins for
Tennessee Border Counties Calling North Georgia
As of September 1st calls placed
from the Tennessee border areas of Hamilton and Polk
counties must dial 10 digits when calling into North
Georgia. The new 762 NPA was introduced as a compliment to
the region's existing 706 NPA. Mandatory dialing of the 762
and 706 area codes will begin after April 3, 2006.
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International Dialing Database
Tele-Tech's International Dialing Database includes city codes
for nearly 100,000 points worldwide. Use this data set to find
the terminating city for an international call, and to determine
whether the international dialing code is reserved for wireless
services so you'll know when surcharges apply.
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include:
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Country Code
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City Code
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Country Name
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City Name
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Wireless
Indicator
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And more!
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For more information, contact Kimberly Russo at
800-433-6181 x7103 or krusso@telecomdb.com
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