TW Telecom asks the FCC to declare IP voice a telecommunications service

TW Telecom has asked the Federal Communications Commission to declare that voice calls transmitted using IP are telecommunications services -- a move aimed at minimizing the carrier's costs of interconnecting calls with incumbent telcos.

“Everybody is putting in IP switches,” said Kelsi Reeves, vice president of federal government relations for TW Telecom, in an interview. But, she said, “incumbents are saying they have no obligation to interconnect on an IP-to-IP basis.” Although TW Telecom has IP voice interconnection agreements with some competitive carriers, the company has not yet been able to negotiate any such deals with an incumbent. Instead, Reeves said calls originating in IP form have to be converted to TDM for interconnection with the incumbents. IP-to-IP interconnection, she said, would be preferable for two reasons. First, she said, it would be more efficient because it would require fewer facilities, which could decrease costs for customers. Second, she said service quality would be better because information associated with the call would be transmitted using SIP. Without direct IP-to-IP connection, calls must be converted from SIP to SS7 and sometimes some of the information associated with the call does not translate correctly, resulting in service degradation, Reeves said.