Petition on Exchange of LEC-Wireless Traffic Has Overwhelming Support, LEC Coalition Tells FCC

The FCC “intraMTA rule” entitles wireless carriers to enter into reciprocal compensation arrangements with respect to the exchange of LEC-wireless carrier traffic, but has no application to traffic exchanged between LECs and interexchange carriers over switched access trunks, the LEC Coalition said in a meeting at the FCC. The Wireline Bureau sought comment on a LEC petition on the issue in December. “The record overwhelmingly supports this position and confirms that granting the Petition, and the relief sought therein, would be consistent with longstanding industry practice, Commission and judicial precedent, and the public interest,” the coalition said. The only opposition has come from long-distance phone companies “whose conduct and lawsuits necessitated the filing of the Petition in the first place,” the coalition said. The filing was made in docket 10-90. Various rural associations also elaborated on their support for the LEC petition, in a separate meeting at the FCC, a second filing in docket 14-228 said. “The intraMTA rule was adopted to address traffic exchange arrangements between commercial mobile radio service providers and local exchange carriers, and has focused upon such CMRS-LEC relationships without ever previously being extended or interpreted by the Commission to allow its invocation directly by interexchange carriers and others transiting or intermediary service providers,” said the filing by the Eastern Rural Telecommunications Association, National Exchange Carrier Association, NTCA and WTA.