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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Wireless phone companies must pay local access charges, federal judge rules

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DALLAS – Wireless call carriers like Verizon and Sprint must pay local access charges even when its users are placing local calls, a federal judge based in Dallas said in a recent order.

Local exchange carriers (LECs) can expect to be paid access fees by interexchange carriers (IXCs) for services the LECs provide that enable IXCs provide interstate wireless calls, U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater, on the bench at the Dallas Division of the Northern District of Texas, said in a recent order.

"Because the IXCs owe the LECs the relief they seek under the terms of the LECs' tariffs, the court grants the LECs' motions for summary judgment dismissing the IXCs' claims against the LECs and awarding the LECs judgment on their claims and counterclaims for the relief they seek," Fitzwater wrote in his eight-page memorandum and order handed down May 15.


U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater

One of the motions had been filed by the LECs that have claims pending against Sprint and its affiliates MCI Communications Services, which does business as Verizon Business and Verizon Select Services.

Fitzwater had to decide three motions for summary judgment under a court-abbreviated summary judgment procedure. 

"Concluding that the movants have established beyond peradventure that they are entitled to summary judgment, the court grants their motions and orders that the parties submit proposed final judgments under the procedure previously prescribed by court order," Fitzwater wrote in his memorandum and order.

Fitzwater handed down the memorandum and order in the IntraMTA Switched Access Charges litigation that involves 85 multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings. 

"These MDL proceedings principally present the question whether local exchange carriers (LECs) can charge interexchange carriers (IXCs) access fees for the services that the LECs provide the IXCs to enable them to exchange interstate wireless intraMTA calls - that is, interstate wireless calls that originate and terminate within the same Major Trading Area (MTA)," the memorandum and order said.

In an attempt "to place these cases in a procedural posture that will permit appellate review of the court's decision" in IntraMTA, the LECs and IXCs tried to resolve their remaining claims and counterclaims by stipulation and agreeing on "forms of final judgments," the memorandum and order said.

"But they have been unable to agree on the question whether the services at issue in this litigation that the LECs provide the IXCs can properly be described as 'access services,'" the memorandum and order said.

The LECs "established beyond peradventure" that the IXCs used LECs' service feature of Feature Group D (FGD) trunks to send to or receive via the LECs telecommunications traffic that is in dispute, the memorandum and order said. 

"The LECs have also established beyond peradventure that, as a matter of fact, by using the LECs' FGD trunks to send or receive the subject calls, the IXCs used the LECs' switched access services, as that term is defined in the LECs' filed tariffs," the memorandum and order said.

"The LECs are therefore entitled to summary judgment dismissing the IXCs claims against them and awarding them judgment on their claims and counterclaims for the relief they seek under the terms of their tariffs," according to the order.

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