Wireline

摘要

Payphones must not be forgotten as the nation transitions to an all-IP communications network, thenAmerican Public Communications Council (APCC) told the FCC in a letter Tuesday (http://bit.ly/XHiqSV).nIn order to fulfill Section 271 of the Communications Act, which requires that payphone service providersnbe “fairly compensated” for every call, the commission “needs to address how the requirements of its regulationsnand orders will be implemented as part of any transition to next generation IP networks,” the payphonenassociation said. Of particular concern are “dial-around” calls, which are generally those dialed by annend-user without depositing a coin. APCC petitioned in 2005 for a declaratory ruling that completing carriersnwere required to pay dial-around compensation for calls converted to IP format for long haul traffic, butnthe FCC has not yet ruled, it said. “Even if the commission ultimately decides that some forms of IPenabledncommunications are not telecommunications in some other context, a dial-around call made from anpayphone is a ‘call’ subject to compensation under Section 276,” the association said, “regardless ofnwhether, or to what extent, the communications traverses an IP network after it leaves the payphone.”