On whether or not the FCC would force AT&T and Qwest to pay disputed access-charge bills, Martin said that was a separate issue, and covered by petitioning processes that might take further time to resolve. “If you have a dispute about the intercarrier compensation rules, you can file petitions, and come to the commission to get redress,” Martin said. “But you can’t just stop letting consumers make those calls.”

said by battleop :

So let me get this right. If more calls flow from the Small Telco to the Big Telco the small telco pays for these calls.

Now if the more calls flow from the Big Telco to the Small Telco the big Telcos Bitch that it's not far and then block the calls.

Three words.
Pot, Kettle, Black.

said by russotto :

There is no free market involved here. There's termination fees imposed by fiat.

said by Noah Vail :

....for the "Pay us our extortionate rates or we'll wither on the vine!" argument to validate itself.

More likely to happen is the free market will force large telcos to compete by offering more efficient technologies.

Or another scenario is that the large telco becomes obsolete and goes away.

One must make a decision on whether well being of the consumer or corporation is the priority.

NV

said by sporkme :

The delicious irony of this is that the ILECs paid millions in lobbying money to get these termination fees so that they could gouge smaller companies.

Now it's biting them in the ass, just like it did when dialup got big.

said by lesopp :

Typical Telco behaviour, lie, cheat and steal to stop customer loss.

Although the topic is regarding the Telcos blocking and/or degrading calls, you can, without a great deal of imagination, see why net neutrality is needed.

said by lesopp :

Did I write net neutrality and termination fees have anything to do with each other?

If you inferred that, allow me to clarify. I was referring to their behaviour in this matter and drawing a parallel with regard to net neutrality a different matter.

Leeches? You really need more understanding, the calls made to this Iowa-based free conference call outfit are long distance calls and already paid for by the caller or some other entity paying for an 800 service.

said by batterup :

Leaches do not help, they kill. Why do you think a practice that does not build or innovate and profits fly-by-night hustlers is good for America?