Equal access for IP?

In the early 1980s, customers who wanted to switch their long-distance service to upstarts such as MCI and Sprint had to use a long dialing string to access the service.

That's no longer necessary-unless a customer wants to use an Internet protocol (IP) telephony long-distance service.

Qwest Communications already has launched voice service over its IP-based network, and customers must dial a local number to access a gateway to the network, then enter a numeric pass code before dialing the actual number they're trying to reach.

But Level 3 Communications isn't prepared to settle for such arrangements. The company is instigating a push for equal access to the public network to let customers select and use IP network operators as their long-distance vendors as easily as they now hop from AT&T to Sprint to MCI and back again.

The idea, at least for Level 3, doesn't change the basic business model, said Level 3 President James Q. Crowe. While IP telephony vendors have been able to charge exceptionally low rates-partly because they're not currently required by the FCC to pay network access charges-Level 3 isn't worried that its initiative might spur the implementation of access charges.

"We're assuming that we'll pay access charges," Crowe said. "The advantage of an IP network connected with the [public network] lies in some access arbitrage."

And while the company is including access charges in its long-range plans, such charges are also becoming less of a factor.

Gail Jones, a senior analyst with The Yankee Group, pointed out that the FCC has decided to change the basic access fee structure from traffic-sensitive to flat-rate. While that decision doesn't affect IP operators yet, it bodes well for their future. The FCC hasn't issued a final ruling on IP telephony access charges, but "there seems to be a consensus that [IP operators] are going to have to pay access charges," Jones said. And the more those access charges continue to drop, the softer the blow will be when they are imposed on IP telephony providers.

The question for the FCC is whether the service is more data or voice, and Level 3's plan is just one of several possible models, Crowe said. Some lower-cost, lower-quality carriers will still target customers that are willing to accept best-effort Internet quality in exchange for lower prices, but that's not Level 3's game, he said.

Instead, the company just wants to see standard signaling interfaces that will allow equal access. It's just a matter of adding intelligence to the existing "dummy" gateways that connect IP networks and the public network, Crowe said. That model involves connecting IP and public networks not just to each other, but also to the SS7 networks that provide the intelligence to enable enhanced services and route calls more efficiently (see figure).

"This doesn't eliminate the need for the gateways," he said. "What we're trying to do is not to change the status quo. We want to develop protocols that match standard IP networks to standard [public networks]."

And it may not be long before those interfaces begin to appear. Level 3 and a group of IP voice vendors recently formed a technical advisory committee to discuss one interface (Telephony, June 29, page 7), and Crowe said smarter IP-to-public network interfaces will be in place when Level 3 rolls out commercial service in the first quarter of 1999. And initial price will not be a key factor in the service offering.

"Our goal is not to do what we did at MFS-look at the dominant provider and price [the service] 15% less," Crowe said. "Our goal is to start [at a competitive price] and push down the price to customers by a large amount each year."

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