MCI/Verizon, Sprint Tell 5th Circuit LECs Can't Impose Access Fees Under IntraMTA Rule
Inter-exchange carriers said a U.S. district court erred in ruling LECs can impose access charges on them simply because they are IXCs. The 1996 Telecom Act mandates that local wireline telcos can charge other carriers "reciprocal compensation" when they exchange…
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local calls and "access charges" when exchanging long-distance calls, said a brief (in Pacer) Tuesday by appellants MCI Communications, Verizon and Sprint to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding In re: IntraMTA Switched Access, No. 18-10768. They said an FCC intraMTA rule categorizes all wireless-to-wireline calls within a "major trading area" as local calls, subject to reciprocal compensation "without exception." The Northern District of Texas erred by creating an exception and allowing LECs to impose access charges when long-distance carriers are involved in routing intraMTA calls, the IXCs wrote. "The district court ruled that the 1996 Act did not displace the LECs' preexisting practice of imposing access charges on IXCs, absent an express action by the FCC to supersede the access charge regime," they added. "But the Act's preservation of access charges does not apply to local calls. Because intraMTA calls are local, regardless of whether they are transported by IXCs, they are subject only to reciprocal compensation, and access charges cannot be applied" and "this Court should reverse."