Truth-in-Billing Decision Loss for Wireless Carriers
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Atlanta, unanimously ruled last month that the FCC "exceeded its authority" in the March 2005 truth-in-billing order that preempted state regulators on what types of line-item details they can require or prohibit regarding consumer cellular bills.

The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), originally filed a petition asking the FCC to prohibit cell phone companies from imposing any separate line item or surcharge on a customer's bill that was not mandated or authorized by federal, state or local law. The FCC rejected the petition and responded by ruling that states could not prohibit or regulate the usage of line items on wireless bills. NASUCA then filed a lawsuit against the FCC claiming it had overstepped it authority since the 1996 Telecommunications Act gave the FCC authority over "rates" but allowed states to regulate "other terms and conditions."

The 11^th Circuit Court held that "the scope of federal authority to regulate 'rates' or 'entry' does not include the presentation of line items on cellular wireless bills. The billing practice is a matter of 'other terms and conditions' that Congress intended to be regulable by the states."

CTIA President Steve Largent responded to the Court ruling saying, "This decision highlights the need for Congress to re-establish a firm and consistent national framework for wireless service." He added, "Forcing wireless providers to establish different business models in different states, whether it's in all 50 or just a handful, for the sole purpose of complying with disparate regulatory regimes will only increase consumer costs and slow innovation."

Patrick W. Pearlman, a deputy consumer advocate with the West Virginia Public Service Commission's Consumer Advocate Division said that the court made a sound decision. "The FCC's argument would have left virtually nothing to the reservation of state authority contained in the act [Communications Act]." Pearlman added, "Now it does sort of turn to the question of what Congress will do."

 

Study Clarifies VoIP Quality Differences
VoIP phone service now sounds better and connects faster than the standard public-switched phone network (PSTN), according to data collected over the last 12 months by Minacom's quality test system. Results show that VoIP service quality increased steadily over the last year, with an average Mean Opinion Score  (MOS) of 4.2, compared to 3.9 for the PSTN. MOS is a scale commonly used to describe speech quality, ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). Based on a MOS threshold of 3.6, only 1 out of 50 calls in North America were considered to be unacceptable - 1 in 10 worldwide - while greater than 85% of VoIP calls exceeded average PSTN quality over the same period.

A recent Internet Phone quality study by Brix Networks indicated that 1 in 5 calls were classified as unacceptable, and that call quality was steadily declining. Minacom felt the study should be clarified for both those in the VoIP industry and others considering VoIP service because the study may have created the impression that VoIP service is not capable of delivering PSTN-grade phone service.

According to a Minacom press release, the Internet study evaluated computer-to-computer (PC-PC) Internet phone service, similar to those offered by Skype, Google, MSN and Yahoo. The quality and service reliability of these applications does not compare to that of the VoIP phone service offered by telecos, cable operators and broadband VoIP providers who carefully deploy, monitor and manage the quality of their services.

Minacom contends that PC-PC VoIP quality is subject to many diverse impairments, including firewall settings, computer performance, antivirus installations, high-compression codecs, and Internet bandwidth shared with gaming, file downloads, web surfing and email. By contrast, VoIP offered by service providers is switched using telecom grade equipment, uses lower-compression codecs, and is prioritized over regular Internet traffic using sophisticated, standards-based multimedia telephone adapters (MTAs), maintained and monitored by the operator.

Minacom's tests were conducted over PSTN, managed broadband and cable VoIP lines, the same services offered to residential and enterprise customers by phone, cable, and hosted VoIP providers. Each month Minacom's conducted tests placing hundreds of calls to public destinations worldwide over PSTN, broadband VoIP, cable VoIP, DSL, FTTP and wireless networks. The results shown in its current study are based on published reports over a one-year period from July 2005 to July 2006.

The company published the results in the Minacom QoS Benchmark Report, free to qualified members of the telecom industry. Visit Minacom.com for more information about their VoIP comparison test results.

 

XO Deploys Fixed Broadband Wireless
XO Communications announced its first significant market deployments of fixed broadband wireless technology that will broaden its ability to deliver business-class broadband solutions directly to businesses and help the company reduce local network costs.

XO has deployed fixed broadband wireless in nine metropolitan markets in which XO plans to utilize fixed broadband wireless technology through a partnership with its sister company, Nextlink. Nextlink is a leading provider of broadband wireless services and the nation's largest holder of Local Multipoint Distribution System (LMDS) spectrum with licenses in 75 metropolitan markets.

XO will utilize LMDS fixed broadband wireless as a last mile access method to deliver Dedicated Internet Access and Metropolitan and Inter-city Ethernet solutions directly to businesses at speeds of 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps. From Nextlink wireless hubs deployed in each market, XO can deliver services to any qualified line-of-site location within an average of five miles to support a wide range of networking services including Internet access, voice over IP (VoIP), and private business local area networks at native LAN speeds. XO is also reducing local network costs by replacing leased circuits that connect local switch locations to the XO network with more cost-effective and scalable fixed wireless links.

For more information about XO Communications fixed broadband wireless deployment visit http://www.xo.com

 

Verizon Business Unveils New IP-Based Services
Verizon Business introduced new Internet protocol-based capabilities for its Contact Center Services and VoIP portfolio to help businesses enhance customer-service operations and to leverage the benefits of VoIP.

Verizon IP Tollfree routes incoming toll-free calls over IP to enable efficiency and support multiple-contact media, such as phone calls, e-mail or instant messaging from around the globe. The service enables contact center agents to transfer calls using capabilities inherent to the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Since it is a network-based service, companies can get the cost benefit of not having to own and operate gateway equipment. 

Verizon IP IVR provides call processing in a pure IP environment over a carrier-grade, global network infrastructure, enabling customers to benefit from network efficiencies such as voice compression and dynamic bandwidth allocation. The service offers administrators a selection of call-routing and processing features and terminates incoming calls to both Time Division Multiplexer (TDM) and IP endpoints.

Working with Avaya Inc., Verizon Business has designed and certified IP Tollfree and IP IVR to be compatible with Avaya Communication Manager with SIP enablement services (SES) 3.1 software and other leading SIP-enabled endpoints. Avaya Communication Manager with SES is also certified for IP Trunking.

Verizon Business' IP Trunking delivers VoIP access and essential telephony features to locations with as few as 200 and as many as 1,000 or more end-users. It enables companies that have already invested in Avaya IP phones to now connect on a single, converged access line for both internal and external traffic. Companies can control costs because they no longer need to purchase and maintain additional TDM enterprise gateway equipment and can take advantage of network efficiencies inherent in converged access.

Additional information on Verizon Businesses IP offerings can be found at: http://newscenter.verizon.com/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=93672

 

FCC Affirms Rules for Access BPL
As part of its ongoing efforts to promote access to broadband services and to encourage new facilities‑based broadband platforms, the FCC in early August generally affirmed its rules for Access Broadband over Power Line (Access BPL) systems while maintaining safeguards against harmful interference to existing radio services.  If harmful interference does occur, the Commission said it would take appropriate action to remedy the situation. 

In the Memorandum Opinion and Order adopted, the Commission again acknowledged the significant benefits of Access BPL, reaffirmed its commitment to address interference issues, and reemphasized that the Part 15 rule changes were made to ensure that Access BPL operations do not become a source of interference to licensed radio services.  The order was adopted in response to a number of petitions for reconsideration of the BPL rules established in October of 2004.

 

 

Cox Communications Receives Highest Honors from J.D.Power
Cox Communications received highest honors in the J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Residential Cable/Satellite TV Customer Satisfaction Study(sm) in the West Region.  This marks the fifth J. D. Power and Associates Award presented to Cox Communications this year.

Cox also received the Highest Honor in J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Residential All-Distance Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study in the Northeast, Southwest and West Regions. Cox received the highest honor in J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Services Study - Data, for highest customer satisfaction among small/mid-size business data service providers in the nation. Cox is the only bundled service provider to receive J.D. Power and Associates' highest honor for all three of its residential telephone, video and high-speed Internet services.

According to the study, customer service is the most important factor for overall satisfaction and the ability to solve problems with one contact has the highest overall value. Cox ranked significantly higher than others in the West region in both of these areas - overall, scoring 54 points higher than the West regions average. Cox also received high scores in convenience of having multiple telecommunications services on one bill; technical innovation; timely resolution of service needs; performance and reliability; ease of contacting customer service and knowledge of customer service representatives; as well as beliefs that Cox is honest, highly reputable and highly committed to its communities.