Level 3 Communications filed a petition asking the FCC to reaffirm that legacy switched access charges do not apply to VoIP. Under current rules, VoIP is generally classified as an "information service." As such, it is exempted from the access charges imposed on traditional long distance telecommunications services. Some industry participants have argued that access charges should be imposed on VoIP traffic when traffic is exchanged between carriers. Level 3 maintains that such a move would be ill conceived and not in the public interest. However, Level 3's petition would, if granted, maintain the current access charge regime for rural carriers.
Level 3 said it supports FCC proposals to move to a unified intercarrier compensation regime that eliminates non-cost-based carrier-to-carrier payments, and that governs the exchange of traffic among carriers under a single set of rules. In addition, the company supports industry development of guidelines and standards to achieve a number of social policies that would enhance VoIP as the technology continues to proliferate. They include:
- development of appropriate 911 and E911 interconnection and deployment standards for IP-originated VoIP;
- development of packet-based standards for the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA);
- a universal service contribution mechanism that is "application neutral" but that ensures that IP-based communications contribute to universal service funding.
"The existing intercarrier compensation regime is based on implicit subsidies and obsolete conceptions of network architecture and technology... it simply does not make sense to compound that system's complexity by forcing VoIP into an already illogical regulatory framework," said James Crowe, Level 3's CEO. http://www.Level3.com
- In December 2003, FCC held its first public VoIP forum. http://www.convergedigest.com/regulatory/regulatoryarticle.asp?ID=9551
