Telecom carriers: 'Phantom' voice traffic costing billions

There's no one more trustworthy than a phone company executive, so it is a good thing many were on hand to tell Congress that some VoIP and mobile phone service providers are riding free when connecting to the traditional telephone network in the U.S., potentially costing carriers billions of dollars. Many voice calls now don't include the identification needed for carriers to charge access fees for calls coming into their networks, said Raymond Henagan, general manager of Rock Port Telephone, based in Missouri. These so-called phantom calls are particularly hard on rural telephone carriers, which receive an average 29 percent of their revenues from the intercarrier compensation system, he told the Senate Commerce Committee. Some VoIP providers have refused to pay access fees by saying the Federal Communications Commission has "given them permission to use the networks for free because they're IP," Henagan said. "You and I both know these are regular voice calls, people talking to people. Because these companies have sprinkled IP fairy dust on them, they think they get a free ride." Phantom traffic costs traditional carriers between $600 million and $2 billion a year, added Lawrence Sarjeant, vice president of federal legislative and regulatory affairs at Qwest Communications International. Sarjeant urged Congress or the FCC to fix problems with the complicated intercarrier compensation system, saying the FCC doesn't require VoIP providers to include traditional call identification protocols on their calls.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/23/Telecom-carriers-Phantom-voice...