WASHINGTON-An FCC staff proposal for the implementation of calling party pays service is being heavily debated by the commissioners’ offices-a debate that could lead to its removal from this week’s Federal Communications Commission’s Open Meeting agenda.
CPP is similar to long-distance toll calling where the person placing the call to a wireless subscriber pays for the call rather than the wireless subscriber. CPP is the norm in Europe, while American carriers have traditionally required the subscriber to pay all charges related to mobile phone use. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association petitioned the FCC to allow for nationwide CPP, claiming it would increase competition and wireless phone use.
The issue that could knock the CPP rules off the agenda-or at least push one or more commissioners toward opposing the rules-appears to be billing.
Independent wireless carriers worry that if incumbent local exchange carriers are not required to provide billing and collection services for CPP, that a nationwide offering could not be developed.
The ILEC community is split on whether to perform billing and collection even for their own wireless subsidiaries. Bell Atlantic Corp.-which is currently running a CPP trial in Delaware-does perform the billing and collection functions. SBC Communications Inc. has said it will not perform billing and collections even for its wireless units.
The staff proposal would require ILECs to provide billing and address information to wireless carriers wishing to implement CPP but would not require billing and collection until they offer billing and collection to a wireless carrier.
Another billing issue that generated hundreds of letters just before the lobbying period closed was how to protect colleges and other private branch exchange users from being billed for CPP calls that they cannot identify. The wireless industry and PBX-user representatives now seem to have agreed to require technology that would allow PBXs to block CPP calls in the same way that 900-toll calls and collect calls are blocked. Under this scenario, callers using a PBX who call a CPP subscriber would hear a message requiring a credit card number.
Even if all the billing issues are resolved by Thursday’s meeting, the industry’s acceptance and support for the CPP plan may be waning.
“This has been an issue we have raised for at least three years … we would have preferred the [FCC] had taken an approach that [acknowledged] the competitive nature of the market … instead [the FCC] is imposing regulations and supposing those regulations will benefit consumers. If there was a market failure, [the FCC] could have used its deregulatory powers. We would have preferred a more deregulatory approach,” said Brian Fontes, CTIA senior vice president for policy and administration.
One of the regulatory prescriptions that CTIA is not pleased with is the notification requirement. While the rules would not script exactly what carriers would be required to say in a notification, they would say what elements would be required in a message.
Those elements would include notification that the call was being placed to a CPP subscriber of X carrier, rate information and language telling the caller how long they have to hang up before incurring any charges.
All these elements are included in the notifications that callers to Bell Atlantic Mobile’s CPP Delaware trial hear.
