Posted by: Hank Hultquist on March 8, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I’ve long thought that I could write a book about various absurdities associated with intercarrier compensation. But, as my wife has pointed out to me (repeatedly), there are no more than a couple of dozen people who would be interested in reading such a book. Since they’re probably the same couple of dozen people who read this blog, I figure I can skip writing the book and inflict my intercarrier musings on you via the blog. The topic for today is traffic pumping. Or, as it is known in more polite company, access stimulation.
I know the 24 of you will be busy this week reading Congressional responses from up to 24 companies that are due today to Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher and Rep. Bart Stupak.
Traffic pumping arises from the confluence of several peculiar features of intercarrier compensation. At the heart of these is the authority possessed by local exchange carriers (LECs) to file a document called a “tariff” with the FCC and, once it “takes effect,” start sending bills to any entity that terminates traffic to the particular LEC. Experience shows that this authority to file tariffs, which is granted by FCC rules, may be the closest thing yet to an actual license to print money. And therein lies the problem. It turns out that if you had such a license, you might be tempted to print as much as you possibly could, irrespective of the consequences for everyone else.
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Posted by: Bob Quinn on March 2, 2010 at 1:40 pm
The FCC’s National Broadband Plan is due to Congress in 15 days. FCC watchers have already begun reading the tea leaves, deciphering the policy gestures, and peddling narratives of industry winners and losers. Before we do the same, let’s first review how we got here.
When Congress passed “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” it set an ambitious objective for the nation: ubiquitous broadband for “all people of the United States.” And, Congress asked the FCC to chart that course by developing the National Broadband Plan.
In developing its plan, the FCC has taken its responsibility very seriously, conducting a transparent process, offering creative and flexible engagement with all, and welcoming public input and participation. Chairman Genachowski should be commended for his willingness to tackle the issue of 100 percent broadband head on and making it a top priority of his chairmanship.
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Posted by: Jim Cicconi on February 26, 2010 at 1:08 pm
There was a lot of activity this week surrounding the FCC’s broadband plan. FCC Chairman Genachowski has been very busy, but he found time last night to accept the prestigious Newt Minow Award at the Kennedy Center.
The Kennedy Center must have been hopping last night as there was also a ballet performance of The Great Gatsby. I was at neither event unfortunately, but I do want to take a minute today to remark on one of the Chairman’s announcements this week.
It is encouraging that Chairman Genachowski has identified spectrum availability as a major near-term challenge. He’s absolutely right, and should be commended for his willingness to tackle the issue head on and make it a top priority of his chairmanship. At AT&T, we are already dealing with phenomenal increases in mobile data use — a whopping 5,000 percent over the last three years. Such usage patterns cannot be sustained without bold action to address the looming spectrum crunch, and that is exactly what FCC Chairman Genachowski has promised.
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