Lawyers Comment on Interconnected VoIP Provider Ruling

The regulatory bodies in government are a necessary evil because they protect consumers from unscrupulous businesses. However, more often than not, that protection comes at a cost. In the communications sector the government was responsible for the Bell System, which stifled competition and basically gave one company total dominion of telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984. To this day, some of the practices of that era still prevail, even though IP telephony is clearly the future. Although in the past the FCC was not known for seeing the obvious, this time it came to a unanimous decision to give interconnected VoIP providers direct access to telephone numbers.

Until this decision by the FCC (News - Alert), if a VoIP provider wanted a phone number for its customers it had to go to a traditional carrier. Suffice it to say this not only slowed down the process, but it added another layer of cost which was passed down to the customer; inefficient all the way around, except for the carrier getting their cut. The details of the FCC decision was expertly scrutinized by Chris Savage and Randall ("Randy") Lowe, two lawyers specializing in communications on lexology.com.

With decades of experience dealing with governance, transactional, regulatory and legislative matters in the communications industry, the article they wrote goes into detail only the way lawyers can.

Regarding the decision, they went on to say, “The FCC determined that the benefits of allowing direct access, such as improved competition, the deployment of advanced services and the elimination of inefficiencies and unnecessary expenses, outweighed any ‘perceived risks’.”

If interconnected VoIP providers want a number, they now have to “comply with the same requirements applicable to carriers seeking to obtain numbers.”  According to the FCC, from here on they will have to follow state requirements, industry guidelines and practices, facilities readiness and numbering utilization and optimization requirements.

As listed in the article, the new ruling requires VoIP providers to: request numbers under their own unique operating company number; file any requests for numbers with the relevant state commissions at least 30 days prior to requesting numbers; provide customers with the opportunity to access all abbreviated dialing codes (N11 numbers) in use in a geographic area; and provide the relevant state commissions with regulatory and numbering contacts when requesting numbers in those states.

Additionally, they must maintain a certification process which requires applicants to:

Comply with applicable FCC rules and state and industry guidelines and procedures;

Provide contact information of personnel qualified to address issues relating to regulatory requirements, compliance, 911 and law enforcement;

Provide proof of compliance with the FCC’s “facilities readiness” requirement;

Certify that it is in compliance with its Universal Service Fund, Telecommunications Relay Service, North American Numbering Plan and local number portability administration contribution obligations, its obligations to pay regulatory fees and its 911 obligations; and

Certify that it has the requisite technical, managerial and financial capacity to provide service, including that none of its key management and technical personnel identified to support such capacities “are being or have been investigated . . . for failure to comply with any law, rule, or order.”

Not only did the FCC authorize this initiative, but it went a step further by creating a separate filing mechanism to simplify the filling processing of the applications within its Electronic Comment Filing System.

The Report and Order becomes effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. 

Edited by Rory J. Thompson

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