sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General Telecom News Free conference calls? How?

Long distance company's fighting these services as it cost them millions. Here\'s how.

Source: AP

I thought that most of this is what the FSLC and numerous other taxes added to lines and usage were supposed to be offsetting.

Funny. At&t, Verizon, Qwest and Sprint ALL operate (or have operated) as the LEC in many of these very rural areas. So effectively, they are happy to receive these termination fees in their own LEC service territories. I believe that this amounts to about 75% of the US or possibly more.

So what they are really saying is that they like it when they are terminating the call, but if it's terminating calls at a co-op or super-tiny Mom & Pop independent, then the rules need to be changed.

Sounds like a double standard to me.

They need to stop operating their multiple operations, which are in fact separate companies, under the same name. The general public isn't going to care about their woes because they are basically complaining about taking money out of one pocket and putting it in another. That is the cost of doing business in most peoples' eyes.

There's a price to pay for all of the recent mergers and aquisitions and these giants need to get used to playing by the long-established rules. The big boys all of a sudden don't like playing by the rules.

As EV stated, the revenue is generated from termination fees. I know that Verizon was holding payment to a LEC and the court has ordered payment to be made. Who knows what the final outcome will be though.

The Mom and Pop independent LEC located in "Schlotzky, Wisconsin" or "Shiloh Junction, Utah" will be forced into accepting a settlement to avoid mounting legal fees trying to fight these monsters. It happens all the time and Verizon isn't the only bad guy in this battle.

I looked at different when I first read it. The Mom and Pop's are being subsidized by the big guys which means anyone who pays a phone bill to the big guys. Along comes Joes conference calling service and says to Mom and Pop have I got a deal for you and you only have to give me 2 cents of the 5 cents the big guys are paying you.

Now when uncle Sam set it up so the big guys paid the little guys more than the going rate it wasn't so they would get rich on it or make conference calling companies rich. It was so Mom and Pop could afford to put in the equipment needed to terminate long distance service to the rural area customers.

So I see it as the big guys getting shafted on this one. They are not only subsidizing the Mom and Pops but also Joes conference calling service.