Number: RL32889
Title: Intercarrier Compensation: One Component of Telecom Reform
Authors: Charles B. Goldfarb, Resources, Science, and Industry Division 
Abstract: Nondiscriminatory intercarrier compensation - the payments that interconnected carriers make to one another when more than one carrier's network must be used to complete a telephone call or other electronic communication - is the linchpin of a competitively neutral regulatory regime. Under current statutory requirements and regulatory rules, these payments vary widely (from 0.1 cents to 5.1 cents per minute), depending on whether the interconnecting party is a local exchange carrier, a long distance carrier, a wireless carrier, or an information service provider, and whether the service is classified as telecommunications or information, local or long distance, or interstate or intrastate - even though in each case basically the same transport and switching functions are provided.
Pages: 35
Date: April 28, 2005