On the neighborhood plan, WCOM will have to pay whatever carrier terminates the call a per minute rate for terminating that call. I don't know what they are currently, but I believe that it's under a penny/minute. Also, WCOM will be paid for each minute that a phone call terminates to that subscriber (as they have essentially leased that customer from the ILEC, they get paid to terminate the call to the customer). So, if the customer receives as many minutes of calls as they make, the costs cancel out (may not be exactly true, as calls terminate in different areas and there may be different settlement charges in different areas).
That's how it works for LD calls. When WCOM is reselling local as well, the ILEC may just terminate all local calls (to and from the subscriber) as part of the resell agreement. Either way, the settlement charges will make very few subscribers unprofitable and will leave the vast majority profitable. |
