AT&T Forbearance Bid Targets Access Stimulation, 'Database Dip' Charges
AT&T said it's filing a forbearance petition seeking FCC relief from certain intercarrier compensation requirements, five years after a commission overhaul. The "narrowly tailored petition" addresses "two statutory and regulatory shortfalls that promote unreasonable rates, harm consumers, distress broadband investment…
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and are generally inconsistent with the public interest," said Matt Nodine, assistant vice president-federal regulatory, in a Monday blog post. "The FCC should detariff tandem switching and transport access charges for all" LECs, "on all calls to or from LECs engaged in access stimulation," he said, calling the action a follow-on to previous FCC determinations against "traffic pumpers" that take advantage of "arbitrage." The commission should also "require LECs to assess per query 'database dip' charges on toll-free calls on a competitive basis," he wrote. "This fits naturally with bill-and-keep, as one underlying purpose of that reform was to reject the idea that only one party 'should bear the entire cost of originating, transporting, and terminating a call.' The current situation not only discriminates against toll-free customers but increasingly results in tariffed query charges priced well above wholesale market rates -- a sure sign of distorted competition. With carriers’ ability to seek competitive rates, these costs will fall more in line with a properly functioning marketplace."