According to a recent newsletter from Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA)…
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar today called the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take action to strengthen rural phone service. Currently, some phone providers refuse to connect calls to customers served by small rural carriers, hurting local businesses and consumers. In a bipartisan letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Klobuchar and 35 other senators called on the FCC to take swift action to restore quality service in rural areas to resolve call completion problems and work to preserve the basic integrity of the nation’s communications network.
The problem is twofold, rural carriers are not getting the Intercarrier Compensation for completing calls because some carriers refuse to terminate a call when such a charge is required and rural customers are not receiving these calls. I spoke with Brent Christensen (from MTA) about this issues a few weeks ago and have been trying to find the time to write up my notes – Klobuchaar’s actions helped me find some time.
Brent and I spoke specifically about problems that some of his customers had been having with Magic Jack. In the spirit of full disclosure, I used Magic Jack for a year when I was living in Ireland a couple of years ago. It’s VoIP-based and let’s you connect a US phone and phone number to your computer. People in the US can call you for free (your phone will ring as at home so long as your computer is on) and you can place calls back to the US. It’s simialr to Skype in some ways although it requires a small piece of hardware.
Magic Jack worked well for me because primarily I was phoning people in the Twin Cities where there is no local connection fee. There are local connection fees in many rural areas. Magic Jack is not interested in paying those fees so they won’t complete the call. The ILEC Advisor did a nice job of explaining the problem…
The letter [filed with the FCC by NTCA, NECA, OPASTCO and WTA (the “Rural Representatives”)], which was a follow-up to an earlier meeting with the FCC on the topic of call termination problems, outlined several specific problems that RLECs have been experiencing at a dramatically increasing rate over the last few months. The first problem is that calls ring on the calling party end, but they are delayed or nonexistent for the called party. Second, the calling party receives a message that the call cannot be completed, but the call never actually reaches the RLEC’s switch. Third, calls “appear to ‘loop’ between routing providers, but never reach the RLEC or tandem it subtends;” and finally, the called party sees incorrect or garbled caller ID information which may make the called party ignore the call completely. All of these problems are serious—the Rural Representatives argue that “the problems currently faced by customers in rural America fly in the face of every reasonable expectation of what the PSTN should be,” and “small businesses [lose] tens of thousands of dollars in sales because their customers cannot reach them.” Furthermore, the Rural Associations point out that these problems present a serious public safety risk, with “families being unable to communicate and check on the safety and well-being of their loved ones.”
Telecompetitor posted information on a survey indicating that this is a problem that is not going away…
Less than a third (28%) of rural call completion problems reported to the originating carrier are resolved, according to a recent survey of 209 rural telcos conducted by several rural carrier associations.
The survey, conducted by the National Exchange Carrier Association, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and the Western Telecommunications Alliance, also found that 62% of telcos responding have seen call completion problems remain steady or increase when comparing complaints during the seven-month period ending in September 2012 with the previous seven-month period.
So why should we care? Again I think the ILEC Advisor does a good job framing the issue – mainly folks in rural areas are being cut out of the loop. The drive is to the bill and keep model, but I think this will be an issue for a while – especially as Magic Jack seems to be gaining popularity…
Magicjack has had a very good year so far as shares are up 29% year to and analysts are forecasting an 81% gain for 2013.
I believe have this exact issue with my Google Voice number. Two problems, actually, that are described here. One is that the phone doesn’t ring until maybe the last ring, at which point it almost always goes to voicemail before I can answer it. The second is when I attempt to make a call. This involves Google 1) calling a phone I own (cell/landline) which I answer and then 2) google calling the destination number. If I choose our landline (Federated Telephone Comany) it never rings. VERY FRUSTRATING. Any solutions to this?
Ben – that’s a really good question. I’m going to think about it while I fulfill a Sunday snowman promise here in St Paul. But I will quickly note that in Kansas Google Fiber opted not to provide voice services: http://www.telecompetitor.com/google-takes-a-pass-on-voice-service/
Here’s their reasoning from the article…
The cost of actually delivering telephone services is almost nothing,” Milo Medin, vice president of Google Access Services is quoted as saying by the Kansas City Business Journal. “However, in the United States, there are all of these special rules that apply.”
I assume those ‘special rules’ that Medin is referring to include interconnection, USF/Connect America Fund, and probably some local regulations as well. Google took a look at them and said “no thank you.”
Not conclusive evidence but certainly points in the same direction. Maybe soemone else has some more helpful advice…
I can confirm that cities in several areas outside the metro contacted the League of MN Cities about these same service quality issues within the last year or two. I am relieved to know that additional efforts are underway to resolve a very distressing and potentially dangerous problem. I was aware of the meeting that the FCC held to determine the nature and extent of the problem, but it is apparent that direct action must be taken to assure that phone customers and local phone companies can be assurred that the call completion issues are addressed.