VoIP fees being argued before FCC

The Federal Communications Commission is accepting comment on a petition requesting that the FCC declare that Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) traffic is identical to traditional telecommunications traffic for intercarrier compensation purposes.

The comment period offers VoIP providers an opportunity to express  views on regulatory treatment of VoIP services.

In February, the FCC issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on intercarrier compensation and universal service reform.

A key issue is the appropriateness of access charges for VoIP services. Access charges are fees that a carrier that serves end users charges other carriers to deliver non-local – or interexchange – traffic to, or from, those end users. These run from hundredths of a penny to several cents per minutey. Access charges provide many traditional carriers with a significant revenue stream.

Some argue that calls  originating in VoIP format shouldn’t be subject to access charges, but instead, much lower reciprocal compensation that applies to local traffic, which typically is much lower than access charges. Large VoIP providers like Vonage and Broadvox, as well as traditional carriers like T-Mobile, and nontraditional communications providers like Microsoft, Google and Skype, all support that position.

But many traditional carriers say VoIP traffic is just like traditional traffic when they receive it, and for that reason VoIP should be subject to traditional access charges. They say the costs of handling traffic remain constant, so there is no reason for what they view as an artificial distinction.

Comments on the petition about the appropriate regulatory treatment of VoIP are due by Aug. 8, 2011.