QWEST HALTS VoIP CHARGES

Qwest Communications startled its RBOC brethren with its recent decision to stop imposing access charges on certain voice-over-IP calls that connect to the public network. While Qwest and others believe the decision gives the carrier a competitive advantage   in the nascent VoIP sector, it could have farther-reaching implications. Some believe it is further evidence that the 1996 Telecom Act needs to be rewritten.

Qwest, which is providing voice service over its DSL lines in some markets, has decided not to charge access fees to calls that it considers “true VoIP”—those that require a broadband connection and an IP conversion of the underlying transmission.

“Right now, we don’t receive significant revenue from access charges on VoIP, and we intend to be a substantial player in VoIP services,” said Steve Davis, Qwest’s senior vice president for policy and law. “Our viewpoint at this time is that you either try to impede it or foster it, and we’ve decided to foster it.”

Motivating Qwest is a desire to gain the first-mover advantage among its peers in the VoIP space, said Nancy Kaplan, senior vice president of Adventis.

“If you’re going to do VoIP, you have to be able to do it both in and out of region to be successful,” she said. “If they’re out in front, they will be able to get out of their region faster.”

However, representatives from both BellSouth and Verizon Communications questioned the decision.

We still are of the opinion that the network has value, and people who use it ought to pay to use it," said a BellSouth spokesman.

A VoIP call that terminates on the public network is no different from a circuit switched long-distance call in terms of how it traverses the network and should be treated in the same manner, said a Verizon spokesman. “When calls transit our local exchange networks in the same way, the same charges should apply.”

Still uncertain is whether the FCC will agree with Qwest’s position, according to Kaplan.

“They’re telling the FCC, ‘We don’t think this is telecom,’ and they’re almost throwing a challenge down to the FCC to do this for everybody else,” Kaplan said.

Qwest can do so because the FCC didn’t go far enough with its AT&T ruling (see story on page 12) said John Roberts, dean emeritus and professor of telecom law at DePaul University. “The commission responded to the specific facts before it and nothing more,” Roberts said.

Roberts added that it wouldn’t be surprising to see Qwest’s position challenged in court as discriminatory.

“It just shows that we need to revise the Telecom Act to deal with broadband and Internet-related issues because the FCC is getting no statutory guidance at all,” Roberts said.