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In a move that comes as no surprise, several Bell Operating Companies (BOCs) officially acted in September to apply access charges to IP Telephony providers. The move is likely to hasten the legal debate over whether IP Telephony providers are required to pay access charges and could signal further efforts by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to apply access charges to other types of service providers.
On September 2, BellSouth circulated a customer letter to companies providing long distance calling via IP technology, notifying them that they would be assessed access charges instead of much lower local exchange service rates. Access charges are the charges interexchange carriers pay to ILECs to originate and terminate long distance calls over their local telephone networks. Access charges are many times higher than the flat-rated business line rates (not based on usage) that ISPs customarily pay.
The BellSouth letter stated that IP Telephony services do not have the characteristics of exempt "information services," but rather "telecommunications services."
On September 11, US West similarly notified IP Telephony providers operating in its region that they too would be assessed access charges like other long distance telecommunications service providers. By the time you read this article, it's likely that other ILECs will have taken similar actions.