It’s hard to get excited about filing a big revenue reduction, but it’s that time again. In 2011, the FCC issued an access reform order reducing intercarrier intrastate terminating access charges over a seven year period. The first reduction on July 1, 2012 brought intrastate rates halfway down to the interstate level. The next step is to reduce intrastate rates to match interstate rates and rate structures by July 1, 2013. Except for the small handful of states that require specific rates in the tariffs, most carriers will file to simply incorporate their interstate tariff by reference. Watch out for state-specific filing dates and instructions.
Last year, Missouri, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Illinois required actual rates in their state tariffs, not just a reference to FCC rates. Since carriers must also match the interstate rate structure, it will be necessary to reference the FCC tariff (for application of rates) and list the current interstates rates in these state tariffs.
Effective July 1, 2013, some carriers will also file to suspend the requirement to use a Percent of VoIP Usage (PVU) for the coming year. During this period of time, interstate pricing will still only apply to Terminating VoIP traffic and all terminating traffic will match interstate pricing. Thus an allocation using PVU will not be necessary. In July 2014, interstate pricing will apply to Originating VoIP traffic, necessitating allocation by PVU again at that time.
