FCC Access Charge Reform

The FCC is going to be looking at a number of complex issues that are related to a major overhaul of the system of charges to support local telephone service. Right now the local exchange carrier (LEC) telephone companies charge very high per minute fees to long distance companies for providing connections for long distance telephone calls. Through an "enhanced service provider" (ESP) exemption, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) don't have to pay these fees. Several LECs are asking the FCC to revoke the ESP exemption for the ISPs. There is also a movement to change the current access fees. The FCC has a docket on this, which you can find from the FCC home page, at www.fcc.gov, or the special page they have set up for the access fee issue: http://www.fcc.gov/isp.html. We will be posting more information about this proceeding. Here are a few relevant documents.

• February 22, 1997, James Love, "A Consumer Perspective on Bandwidth, Network Congestion, Network Architecture and Regulatory Reform," Presentation to NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REGULATORY UTILITY COMMISSIONERS (NARUC).
• February 18, 1997 essay on FCC Policy on Access Charges and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by James Love, first published in Info-Policy-Notes.
• February 14, 1997 CPT reply comments.
• February 1997 paper by Robert Cannon, What is the "Enhanced Service Provider" Status of Internet Service Providers? FCBA News
• January 29, 1997 CPT's Initial Comments on Access Charge Reform.
• CPT's January 23, 1997 prepared statement at the FCC Forum on Available Bandwidth. These are James Love's notes on the FCC bandwidth forum, plus the FCC's Transcripts
• January 22, 1997 Report on The Effect of Internet Use on the Nation's Telephone Network is now available in HTML format from the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) Web page. The 53-page report was written for the Internet Access Coalition by Economics and Technology Inc. It presents strong evidence countering claims by local phone companies that internet use is causing telephone network congestion. The Executive Summary is also available from the Internet Access Coalition's Web page in HTML format, but we don't think it is nearly as useful as the report itself.
• December 27, 1996 Comments of Dr. Steven Sanders President of the Northern Arkansas Telephone Company (NATCO) before the FCC in the matter of Access Charge Reform
• May 8, 1996 CPT comments in FCC ACTA petition on Internet Telephony.
• April 12, 1996 CPT commetns in FCC docket on Universial Service, which discusses access charge reform issues.
• July 14, 1995 CPT comments in FCC proceeding on access charges and ISDN.