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 their customers.
The Missouri court reaffirmed the Missouri Public Service Commission was correct in refusing to allow rural LECs 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 LEC did not have an interconnection agreement.
“This is not about equity; this is a question of law,” Paul DeFord of Lathrop & Gage L.C. and outside counsel to Cingular Wireless L.L.C., told RCR Wireless News.
The lawyer representing the rural carriers said the issue was “too complicated” for the court. “The wireless carriers are being allowed to confiscate our networks without paying for that use,” said attorney Craig Johnson, who represented the rural LECs.
Rural local carriers wanted to charge wireless carriers access charges, which are used to compensate for long-distance calls. However, the Federal Communications Commission already has ruled that calls within the same MTA are local so companies cannot charge access fees.
“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.”
DeFord 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,” he said.
Squabbles between wireless carriers and rural LECs over compensation have been simmering for years. For the most part, the two sides have had compensation agreements in place since around 2001. 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. Rural LECs contend that if bill-and-keep is adopted, they would lose a significant revenue source they say is necessary to keep their networks functioning. RCR
