On 10/28/2013 4:33 PM, Mike Hammett wrote:
So they just chose poor VoIP upstreams?
Poor quality ones, yes. Under current rules, being VoIP doesn't waive
switched access rates. Until the FCC ruled in late 2011 that VoIP
termination was subject to interstate access (even on intrastate calls,
where access rates were allowed to be higher until this year), many VoIP
providers assumed that they were exempt, and the Bells usually went
along with it. But the rurals usually didn't, so there was no safe
legal way to deliver calls cheaply to the rurals. But small VoIP
providers tried anyway. And they charged less per minute than legit
providers, so originating carriers chose them in their LCR tables.
And if the call didn't go through at all, well, the call was
unprofitable anyway. So this may have to some extent been a way to get
around the rule of universal call completion. You make an effort to
complete the call but do it badly enough so that it often fails... and
if your customer really needs to call that location, they switch to
another carrier. Which is fine since they're probably a negative-margin
customer. Remember, FCC rules require that *retail* long distance rates
be averaged (costs the same to call a rural as an urban carrier), but
wholesale rates vary (reflecting different call termination charges).
fg>The problem is/was that they are perfectly capable of completing
calls that reach them, but instead of sending calls to them directly
via LD providers, calls were being handed off, by the originating
carriers, to VoIP long distance providers who handed them off to other
VoIP long distance providers... and the call often didn't go through,
or went through with inadequate call quality.
Some funny games have been played with arbitrage, trying to get around
high rural-carrier switched access rates.
The PSTN and Internet legal/business models are quite different,
albeit complementary. In the Internet model, interconnection is all
voluntary, and you can relay the packet through as many intermediaries
as it takes, and it's all "best efforts" or blocked. It's not common
carriage. The PSTN model, in contrast, is mandatory interconnection
and delivery of calls at regulated intercarrier rates. (These are
higher for small rural carriers than for large or urban carriers.)
Rural call completion became a problem when people with Internet
experience tried to game the PSTN to lower the cost per minute.
--
Fred R. Goldstein k1io fred "at" interisle.net
Interisle Consulting Group
+1 617 795 2701
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_______________________________________________
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http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless
--
Fred R. Goldstein k1io fred "at" interisle.net
Interisle Consulting Group
+1 617 795 2701
_______________________________________________
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[email protected]
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