Responding to concerns raised by NTCA, its rural allies, NARUC and state commissions, the FCC released a declaratory ruling today regarding rural call completion issues. In the ruling, the FCC confirms, as sought by NTCA and these other parties, that a carrier that knows or should know of traffic routing problems on its own or other routers' networks may be held directly liable for violations of law.
The FCC ruling states that it is unjust and unreasonable for a carrier to provide degraded service to a certain area, to fail to correct the problem, or to fail to ensure that intermediate providers, least-cost routers or other entities acting for the carrier are performing adequately. It warned carriers that the FCC is authorized to assess a forfeiture of up to $150,000 for each violation or each day of a continuing violation, up to a statutory maximum of $1,500,000 for a single act or failure to act.
We are continuing to review the ruling, and we will discuss the interpretation and enforcement of it with members as we press forward on this issue. The ruling can be found HERE
