Opinion ID: 794949
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: reciprocal compensation and access charges

Text: 10 One issue involved here is the requirement of the 1996 Act that interconnecting local exchange carriers establish reciprocal compensation arrangements for transporting and terminating calls. 47 U.S.C. § 251(b)(5); see also 47 C.F.R. § 51.703. Reciprocal compensation arrangements are structured so that the carrier whose infrastructure is used in making and terminating (or completing) a call receives compensation from another carrier that is using its network. That is, when a CLEC's customer calls an ILEC's customer located in the same local calling area, the CLEC pays the ILEC for terminating the local call. Likewise, when an ILEC's customer calls a CLEC's customer located in the same local calling area, the ILEC pays the CLEC for terminating the local call. Reciprocal compensation is based on minutes of use and is expressly limited to transportation and termination of local traffic. 47 C.F.R. § 51.701(e)(1), see also § 51.707(b)(1). 11 Long-distance calls (referred to variously as interstate or intrastate exchange service or toll service) are subject, in using local infrastructure, to access charges — not reciprocal compensation. 47 C.F.R. § 69.2(a). Thus, access charges are charges that long-distance companies are required to pay local-exchange carriers for the use of local network facilities. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authority over interstate long-distance calls, and the state commissions have authority over (in addition to local service) intrastate long-distance. 12 These rules governing intercarrier compensation are relatively straightforward when applied to ordinary telephone voice calls. Parties sometimes disagree about the parameters of the agreements, but it is fairly easy to apply the rules in that normal context. Things become far more contentious, however, in the realm of Internet-bound traffic. The FCC has in recent years considered the question whether Internet telecommunications traffic is subject to reciprocal compensation but has never directly addressed the issue of ISP-bound calls that cross local-exchange areas. See generally 2001 Remand Order, 16 F.C.C. Rcd. at 9151.