Verizon has petitioned the FCC to do away with the annual traffic and revenues report and the annual international circuit capacity report, a process the telco claims is very labor intensive.
In an FCC filing (PDF), Verizon said that the FCC no longer relies on the annual traffic reports and that the benefits to the public interest for the international circuit capacity report provide minimal benefit to the public.
However, Verizon claims that the requirement to conduct these reports “require providers to spend hundreds of hours to prepare and file.”
“Eliminating these reports will significantly reduce burdensome paperwork obligations without undermining the agency’s mission to protect consumers from harm in international telecommunications services,” Verizon said.
The FCC used to use the international traffic and revenue reports to monitor international settlement rates, including the enforcement of the regulator’s competitive benchmarks. According to Verizon, the FCC has found that most international routes are competitive and ended its International Settlements Policy.
Under the current rules, the FCC requires service providers like Verizon and AT&T that provide international interconnected VoIP to report annually their traffic and revenue for international voice services, international miscellaneous services and international common carrier private lines.
Although the FCC estimates that providers will spend 203 hours annually to prepare this filing, Verizon said it spends far more time.
“Verizon, for example, expends over 600 hours of employee time to prepare the international traffic and revenue reports each year—over three times the estimated burden,” Verizon said.
But Verizon is not the only carrier that has faced issues with preparing this report. AT&T said in a separate filing (PDF) the effort required in preparing the report is 50% greater than the Commission estimates.
“AT&T’s preparation of the Traffic and Revenue Report and performance of associated tasks require approximately four times the 203 hours the Commission has estimated for this work,” AT&T said. “Similarly, AT&T’s preparation of the Circuit Capacity Report requires more than nine times the 13 hours estimated by the Commission.”
While the FCC has not ruled on Verizon and AT&T's requests, the companies may get a sympathetic ear from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has made it a mission to do away with various legacy reporting tools.