[Senate Report 113-130]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
113th Congress } SENATE { Report
1st Session } { 113-130
_______________________________________________________________________
Calendar No. 276
A RESOLUTION EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF
THE SENATE THAT TELEPHONE SERVICE
MUST BE IMPROVED IN RURAL AREAS
OF THE UNITED STATES AND THAT NO
ENTITY MAY UNREASONABLY
DISCRIMINATE AGAINST TELEPHONE
USERS IN THOSE AREAS
__________
R E P O R T
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
on
S. Res. 157
December 19, 2013.--Ordered to be printed
SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman
BARBARA BOXER, California JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
BILL NELSON, Florida ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROY BLUNT, Missouri
MARK PRYOR, Arkansas MARCO RUBIO, Florida
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota DEAN HELLER, Nevada
MARK WARNER, Virginia DAN COATS, Indiana
MARK BEGICH, Alaska TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut TED CRUZ, Texas
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
ED MARKEY, Massachusetts RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
CORY BOOKER, New Jersey
Ellen Doneski, Staff Director
John Williams, General Counsel
David Schwietert, Republican Staff Director
Nick Rossi, Republican Deputy Staff Director
Rebecca Seidel, Republican General Counsel
Calendar No. 276
113th Congress Report
} SENATE {
1st Session } { 113-130
======================================================================
A RESOLUTION EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT TELEPHONE
SERVICE MUST BE IMPROVED IN RURAL AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES
AND THAT NO ENTITY MAY UNREASONABLY DISCRIMINATE AGAINST
TELEPHONE USERS IN THOSE AREAS
_______
December 19, 2013.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Rockefeller, from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation, submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. Res. 157]
The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, to
which was referred the Senate resolution (S. Res. 157) a
resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that telephone
service must be improved in rural areas of the United States
and that no entity may unreasonably discriminate against
telephone users in those areas, having considered the same,
reports favorably thereon with an amendment (in the nature of a
substitute) and recommends that the resolution (as amended) do
pass.
PURPOSE OF THE RESOLUTION
The purpose of S. Res. 157, as reported, is to express the
sense of the Senate that telephone service must be improved in
rural areas of the United States and that no entity may
unreasonably discriminate against communications service in
those areas. It also calls upon the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to aggressively enforce violations of its
rules to discourage such unreasonable discrimination.
BACKGROUND AND NEEDS
In order for a long distance or wireless carrier to complete
one of its subscriber's calls, the carrier must deliver the
call to the exchange serving the called party. The physical
process of delivering the call to the exchange is called
``routing,'' and the charge paid by the long distance company
to the local carrier is called an ``access charge.'' These
charges help pay for the cost of rural networks.
Carriers often have multiple ways to route a call to its
destination. In order to reduce access charges, some carriers
have contracted with third-party ``least-cost routing'' service
providers. These providers connect calls to their destination
at the lowest cost possible. Although many of these contracts
include performance parameters, it appears that all too
frequently those performance levels are not being met and a
portion of calls are never connected.
Recurring complaints indicate that rural consumers are having
significant problems receiving long distance or wireless calls
on their landline telephones. According to trade associations
that represent rate-of-return carriers in rural areas, consumer
complaints related to call completion problems have increased
dramatically in recent years. According to data filed by the
National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) with
the FCC in 2011, 80 percent of rural carriers responding to one
survey reported problems. In addition, NTCA data indicated that
reports from rural subscribers who had problems receiving calls
increased by over 2,000 percent in the twelve-month period from
April 2010 to March 2011.
In February 2012, the FCC issued a declaratory ruling making
clear that rural call routing practices that lead to call
termination and call quality problems could be a violation of
the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (Act). Specifically,
the FCC concluded that such call routing practices may
constitute unjust and unreasonable practices in violation of
the Act and may violate a carrier's section 202 duty to refrain
from unjust or unreasonable discrimination in practices,
facilities, or services. The FCC also emphasized that, under
section 217 of the Act, carriers are responsible for the
actions of their agents or other persons acting for or employed
by the carriers.
Despite this action, studies prepared by the National
Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) suggest that rural call
completion problems did not abate and may have grown. As a
result, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
on February 7, 2013, exploring the issues surrounding call
completion. The NPRM seeks more detailed calling information
from long-distance voice and Voice-over-Internet Protocol
(VoIP) providers that could help isolate and address rural call
completion problems. In addition, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau
is investigating several long-distance providers for call
completion problems. For example, in March 2013, the FCC
announced a consent decree with Level 3 Communications relating
to the company's call completion practices, pursuant to which
Level 3 agreed to pay an almost $1 million voluntary
contribution to the FCC and to abide by certain ``verifiable''
call completion standards and record-keeping obligations.
NTCA and other groups have argued that call completion
problems compromise the integrity and reliability of the
public-switched telephone network and threaten the public
safety, homeland security, consumer welfare, and economic well-
being in rural America.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
In the 113th Congress, Senator Klobuchar introduced S. Res.
157 on May 23, 2013. The bill was co-sponsored by Senators
Baldwin, Boozman, Boxer, Cantwell, Enzi, Fischer, Franken,
Grassley, Harkin, Hoeven, Tim Johnson, Leahy, Merkley, Pryor,
Roberts, Sanders, Tester, and Thune.
The Committee held an executive session on July 30, 2013,
during which S. Res. 157 was considered. Senator Klobuchar
submitted an amendment making technical changes to S. Res. 157,
which was adopted by voice vote. S. Res. 157, as amended, was
reported favorably by the Committee.
ESTIMATED COSTS
The Committee states that, in its opinion, paragraph 11(a) of
rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate does not apply to
this resolution.
REGULATORY IMPACT STATEMENT
The Committee states that, in its opinion, paragraph 11(b) of
rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate does not apply to
this resolution.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
S. Res. 157 expresses the sense of the Senate that telephone
service must be improved in rural areas of the United States
and that no entity may unreasonably discriminate against
telephone users in those areas.
S. Res. 157 includes documentation of the scope of the call
completion problems in rural America. Specifically, evidence
collected by the NECA indicates the following: (1) call
completion problems increased by 41 percent between March and
September of 2012; (2) 6.4 percent of calls to rural areas
failed, compared to 0.5 percent of calls to urban areas; and
(3) 11 percent of calls to rural areas suffered from poor
quality or were delayed, compared to 5 percent of calls in
urban areas. It also recounts the steps the FCC has taken to
date to combat the call completion problem, including its
Declaratory Ruling in February 2012.
S. Res. 157 also states that the FCC's actions to combat call
completion problems have not significantly decreased the
incidence of problems, and that some States are reporting
increases in call completion issues as of April 2013. Finally,
S. Res. 157 notes that call completion issues affect public
safety and economic activity in rural areas.
Given the foregoing, S. Res. 157 would resolve that it is the
sense of the Senate that--
(1) all providers must appropriately complete calls
to all areas of the United States, regardless of the
technology used by providers;
(2) no entity may unreasonably discriminate against
communications service in rural areas of the United
States; and
(3) the Federal Communications Commission should--
(A) aggressively pursue those that violate
the rules of the Federal Communications
Commission and create these problems, and
impose swift and meaningful enforcement actions
to discourage--
(i) practices leading to telephone
calls not being completed in rural
areas of the United States; and
(ii) unreasonable discrimination
against communications service in rural
areas of the United States; and
(B) move forward with clear, comprehensive,
and enforceable actions to establish a robust
and definitive solution to stop discrimination
against communications service in rural areas
of the United States.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing
Rules of the Senate, the Committee states that the bill as
reported would make no change to existing law.