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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1204)	8/29/1998 5:47:00 AM
From: wonk	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3178

Frank: Ohio PUC Rules in Favor of ICG/Netcom in Dispute with Ameritech Admittedly, I am a little confused by this release. However, if one takes the text at face value, then it was a simple reciprocal compensation dispute and the mention of ISPs just clouds the issue. My thinking is that the Netcom subsidiary of ICG purchases trunk circuits to the ICG Central Office. When an Ameritech subscriber dials the ISP the call is handed off to ICG which terminates the call. If the termination point was a call center rather than an ISP would there be confusion here? If my supposition is correct, then one can presume that what was sticking in Ameritech's craw was the long hold time of the typical dial-up ISP call. Are not most, if not all reciprocal compensation agreements based on a per minute fee? Perhaps I've missed an obvious and long known point, but this appears to be a money maker for the CLECs. The general presumption has always been that origination and termination is relatively balanced (except for mobile wireless where termination fees have always been a major cost component). Not so, with call centers, ISPs etc. The ILEC can't pay themselves but a CLEC can cream skim by having wholly-owned ISPs and subsequently rolling- up as many as they can within their service territory. Since dial-up is predominately residential traffic, and CLECs are predominately business focused, the orgination/termination weighting should always favor the CLEC. ww