Call completion record-keeping requirements associated with the rural...

record-keeping requirements mandate that telcos collect call completion data on calls destined to rural ILECs, report that data to the FCC every quarter and retain the data for six months. Those rules haven’t taken effect because the Office of Management and Budget’s review of the rules remains “underway,” said Claude Aiken, Wireline Bureau Competition Policy Division acting deputy chief, at an FCBA event. The FCC’s relationship with OMB on large-scale information collection policy has been “rocky lately” but the commission is hopeful it can work with OMB to make the call completion rules “sail through,” Aiken said. The FCC has received four requests for waivers and five petitions for reconsideration of the rules, he said. Representatives from AT&T and CenturyLink said the telcos intend to submit as much call completion data as possible, but both telcos are also seeking waivers on the record-keeping rules. AT&T would have trouble fully complying with the rules because it would “have to update some very old switches” that the telco no longer maintains because it’s phasing them out as part of its transition to an all-IP network, said Brian Benison, director-federal regulatory. AT&T filed a waiver request seeking to provide data only on a “statistically significant” portion of calls on which it does track call completion data, he said. CenturyLink is implementing the safe harbor policies included in the order, which will “significantly reduce our use of intermediate carriers,” said Jeb Benedict, vice president-federal regulatory affairs. CenturyLink is also seeking a waiver of the reporting rules so it won’t have to report data on calls that involve multifrequency signaling and LEC-to-LEC calls -- two types of calls it’s technically difficult to collect data on, he said.