ISP Information:
A form of doing business that deals with selling goods and services to the consumer marketplace. Examples of this would be selling consumer electronics, toys, or pet supplies. This contrasts with the business to business model.
ISP Glossary:
Business to Consumer - Tony P. wrote, Seems this little co-op phone company is about to bring the cell carriers to their knees. Who knew that they didn't pay the interconnect charge when cell calls land on wired switches. http://www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=87258&cat_id=123That article says, The East Buchanan Telephone Company in Winthrop says it's lost half a million dollars from cell phone companies not paying for use of its phone lines over the last five years. So E.B.T.C. bought a machine that blocks all incoming cell phone calls to land lines in town and plans to use it starting Monday.Talk about a 'tude! These rules are a bit complex, but it sounds to melike East Buchanan Tel just doesn't like playing by the rules. E.B.T.C. general manager Butch Rorabaugh said it won't block cell phone users from calling other cell phones or from calling 9-1-1. Rorabaugh says other long distance carriers like AT&T pay a fee to use their line. But cellular phone carriers do not. He says it's a huge nationwide problem that's tied up in the courts, but the tiny town of Winthrop is actually trying to do something about it. He told TV9, "We're using our facilities, our plant, our investment to complete these calls, and we'd simply like to get paid for that."Sure. But let's review the federal rules. (Note IANAL. This is justmy understanding, not a legal opinion.) Way back when, when cellularfirst came out, it was really expensive, and the FCC allowed thecellular companies to interconnect to the local exchange carriers viathe latters' *Access* tariffs. Access is the tariff used forinterexchange carriers like AT&T and MCI to purchase the last milefrom local carriers. It's generally expensive, carrying somesubsidies above direct cost. Especially in small rural telephonecompanies.The Telecom Act of 1996 changed the rules. It redefinedcellular (CMRS, to be precise -- that also includes paging, PCS, andNextel-like ESMR carriers) carriers to be co-carriers of local calls,peers rather than monopoly ratepayers. So the CMRS carriers areexpected to pay a cost-based rate for the calls that they send to theLEC, but the LEC is expected to pay the *same* rate to the CMRScarriers for calls made to the CMRS subscribers. In general,cellular-originated calls are more than twice the volume ofcellular-received calls, so the local telco still comes out ahead.But not as far ahead as under Access, because that tariff charges theother carrier (like AT&T) for *both* directions. So calls to cellphones used to be charged to the cellular carrier but for most of adecade have been charged to the local carrier. And at lower rates.East Buchanan Tel apparently doesn't like this. As a cooperative,they're exempt from most of the competition rules -- they don't haveto permit CLECs to operate in their territories at all! But whileCMRS gets CLEC-like peer interconnection, CMRS gets it by right, inall places, to all carriers, with or without a contract. And now withnumber portability. And CMRS is to some slight extent competition;some people don't need wireline phones if they have a cell phone. Notmany -- it's not real competition in the general sense -- but a fewpercent, maybe, can go that route. Not good to someone who expects tohave 100.000% of the market share, and who is *not* happy with only98%.East Buchanan can charge CMRS carriers for the use of theirfacilities. It might take some negotiation or even, at the extreme,FCC action, but they're entitled to be paid to deliver calls. But ofcourse they then have to pay for calls that are delivered on thecellular carriers' networks. Cellular networks need to be paid too!But note that most small rural telephone companies collect only asmall share of their expenses from their own subscribers. Theycollect a larger share from access charges (getting much more perminute that the Bells do) and from the FCC's Universal Service Fund,which is funded by a tax (its rate set by the FCC, not Congress, Ithink it's now around 8.9%) on interstate telecom services. I supposethey see CM
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