WASHINGTON-The Missouri Supreme Court gave a stunning rebuke to rural local exchange carriers, which have been trying unsuccessfully to recover money they believe wireless carriers owe them for connecting calls from mobile phones to RLEC customers.
The Missouri court said the Missouri Public Service Commission was correct in refusing to allow the RLECs to change their tariffs to charge for connecting calls that both originated and terminated in the same metropolitan trading area, even if the wireless carrier and the RLEC did not have an interconnection agreement.
The problem was that the RLECs wanted to charge wireless carriers “access charges,” which are used to compensate for long-distance calls. However, since the Federal Communications Commission has ruled that calls within the same MTA are local, access charges cannot be used.
“Because in this case all parties agree that the traffic in question originates and terminates within the same MTA, only tariffs pertaining to transport and termination rates may be imposed and conversely, tariffs pertaining to interstate and intrastate access charges may not be imposed,” wrote Judge Stephen Limbaugh, Jr., of the Missouri Supreme Court. “It appears that the RLECs are simply unwilling to acknowledge the clear distinction made between intraMTA calls and all other calls.”
The outside counsel for Cingular Wireless L.L.C. was clearly pleased with the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling.
“The decision properly recognizes the clear import of the FCC’s repeated pronouncements in this area: Under no circumstances can inter- or intrastate access charges be applied to intraMTA wireless originated or terminated traffic,” said Paul DeFord of Lathrop & Gage L.C.
Squabbles between wireless carriers and RLECs over compensation have been simmering for years.
The wireless industry has urged the FCC to adopt a bill-and-keep regime for intercarrier compensation. The proposal would require carriers to recover whatever costs they incur from delivering a call from an end user, not another carrier. The RLEC industry has said that if bill-and-keep is adopted, they will lose a significant source of revenue they say is necessary to keep their networks functioning.
