There is currently a nation-wide epidemic in the telephone industry affecting the complex issue of inbound call completion. As many of our customers have experienced, the problem manifests itself with long call-setup times, the calling party hearing dead air on the other end, the called party picking up and hearing dead air, poor call quality, or one party being able to hear but not the other. In short, the problem arises as a result of the calling party’s long distance carrier transporting the call via the least cost route, generally through an intermediate carrier. For example, if someone in Washington dials your SMTC number using Comcast, Comcast sets up the call, then likely hands it off to an intermediate “underlying” long distance carrier.
In most cases, we’ve found the intermediate carrier doesn’t have routing tables properly set up and thus is unable to properly route the call. The intermediate carrier may be able to partially pass the call (e.g., you hear the ring but when you answer you or the calling party hears dead air) or, more often, the intermediate carrier can’t pass the call at all. In either case, complete call detail necessary for SMTC’s switch to complete the call is never received and SMTC cannot complete the call. In all cases we have researched there has been absolutely nothing SMTC can do to resolve the problem since the problem is generated upstream from us, before the call gets to our equipment. If the call even arrives at SMTC’s switch the Call Detail Record (CDR) contains insufficient data to complete the call and, in most cases, never arrives at our equipment.
This problem (referred to in the telephone industry as the “call termination” or “least cost routing” issue) is a nationwide problem affecting many rural telephone companies and their customers. Industry experts have filed specific call detail data with the FCC for more than 1,800 such calls made in March 2011 from some 200 rural telephone companies all over the nation; that filing with the FCC indicated over 10,000 such calls recorded between 2008 and April 2011. In various industry conferences and FCC communications, FCC personnel have claimed they’ve heard us, are aware of the issue, and are working toward an action plan “soon”. We can only hope the FCC really HAS gotten the message and will do what they should have done long ago – penalize the bad actors to the degree that they’ll stop their bad behavior. On September 20th Shirley Bloomfield, National Telecommunications Cooperative Association CEO, wrote a letter to the Chairman of the FCC asking that the FCC set up workshop with all stakeholders aimed at identifying a solution; that letter also calls on the FCC to immediately issue an advice letter putting all parties on notice that failure to terminate calls will meet with effective enforcement action. On September 22nd the Chairman of the Montana PSC committed to writing a letter to the FCC urging an expeditious resolution. As of September 22nd the FCC has yet to publish an action plan.
SMTC suggests the following steps if you experience these kinds of inbound call completion issue in an effort to continue applying pressure on industry regulators:
- File a complaint with the FCC (http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm , or 1-888-225-5322)
- File complaint with the Montana PSC (1-406-444-6192)
