AT&T RING DING
By STEPHEN LYNCH
newyork.post
April 9, 2004 -- AT&T could owe nearly $1 billion, and face years of costly litigation, under a decision the FCC is considering about telephone access fees.
For two years, AT&T has not paid interconnection fees to local phone companies when it used Internet lines to transfer the calls. The long-distance provider now expects the Federal Communications Commission to rule that it is required to pay those charges.
As to whether AT&T would owe those fees retroactively, a source close to the FCC said the commission probably won't address that issue. "But by not saying anything, it opens up AT&T to litigation," the source said.
It's hard to say how much AT&T would owe local phone companies. In a filing, AT&T said it was a possible cost, but gave no estimate.
Verizon said it has not been tracking the number. SBC estimated the total it is owed by AT&T and other long-distance carriers is between $250 million and $450 million.
Considering most of that amount would be accounted for by the long-distance giant, and assuming other local operators arrive ata similar figure, AT&T could be on the hook for nearly $1 billion.
An AT&T spokeswoman accused the FCC of splitting hairs with its decision.
In February, the commission ruled that voice-over-Internet calls that start and terminate on a computer network are exempt from fees. In AT&T's case, voice traffic was routed through Internet lines, but began and ended on traditional phone networks.
"Our position is it doesn't matter," said Larry Plumb, a spokesman with Verizon, who opposed AT&T's petition to the FCC. "They could have been bounced off the moon, it's still a phone call, and here's the price that applies."
AT&T has been battered by local-telephone operators of late. The carriers have stolen more of their long-distance and high-speed Internet access business, and Verizon recently knocked AT&T off the Dow Jones industrial average.
If Verizon hits AT&T with a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars, it could add injury to insult. |
