A group of rural telcos in Iowa were roundly lambasted by larger telcos earlier this year for carrying the traffic of so-called free conference call services over their networks, and terminating the call on VoIP connections, thus bypassing public long-distance networks. The practice, known as traffic pumping, riled AT&T to the point that it began blocking calls from services such as FreeConference.com. Other large telcos began to do the same, and FreeConference.com sued AT&T.
Last month, the Federal Communications Commission said AT&T didn't have the right to block such calls, and now FreeConference.com has dropped its lawsuit. It's doubtful, however, that this controversy is over. The small telcos and the large long-haul players still have a score to settle: There's no word yet on whether the Iowa telcos will be compensated for the calls that were blocked, or if big and small telcos will lock legal horns over the issue.
For More:
- GigaOM has the latest on the dropped lawsuit