"We intend to issue shortly a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to propose and seek comment on additional steps the Commission might take to further implement the Call Home Act and thus further reduce the cost to military personnel of calling home."
So the Federal Communications Commission declared on January 18th of last year. As the first anniversary of that promise approaches, LLFCC can find no sign that it will be kept. A spokesperson for the FCC contacted by this blog declined to comment on when such a proceeding might begin.
To recap: Congress passed the Call Home Act [0] in December of 2006: "A bill to direct the Federal Communications Commission to make efforts to reduce telephone rates for Armed Forces personnel deployed overseas."
The FCC initially followed through on the mandate by permitting phone companies not to charge Universal Service Fund (USF) and Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) tolls on Armed Forces personnel collect calls, or those made with pre- and post-paid calling cards. The USF funds telephone service for low income families; TRS finances and regulates telecommunications services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
"Exempting calls made by Armed Forces personnel stationed and deployed abroad from current USF and TRS contribution obligations will provide clear benefits to our dedicated Armed Forces personnel, which far outweigh any potential costs," the FCC declared in its January 2006 Order implementing Call Home. "And to ensure that Armed Forces personnel benefit from our actions, we emphasize that providers of such calls should flow through any cost savings in the form of lower prices."
The Commission also set up an e-mail address for soldiers and their families to use to tell the FCC how much they pay for cell phone and broadband services in Iraq and elsewhere: CallHomeAct@fcc.gov [1].
As LLFCC reported [1] in September, the agency got an earful from the wives of servicemen. They complained about exorbitant calling card costs (mostly AT&T cards) and sporadic service.
"When the Internet is down, we spend ALOT of money on phone cards," an Iraq based serviceman's wife disclosed. "One week it cost 350 dollars. We couldn't keep up at that rate. Currently we can't afford to talk to one another on the phone, so his mother buys us minutes every now and then. . . . I think his Internet costs 75 a month, however it is down a lot. Phone communication is best for our insanity, but we buy like 1200 minutes on the card for 100 dollars but it is really only like 200 or 300 minutes (which doesn't last long!). It would be awesome if the minutes were more affordable."
In addition, several telecom specialists complained that the USF exemption was unworkable.
"You provided no lead time for planning how to configure billing systems to exclude military calls from the USF/TRS base," one commenter observed. "Specifically, how would you recommend that carriers identify these calls? For example, how will the billing system be able to differentiate a collect call from a U.S. military person from any other collect call that would not be exempt."
Since the FCC posted those comments on its docket database last summer, LLFCC has neither seen or heard of any further activity on this important issue. At around the same time that Call Home was enacted, Internet guru and all-purpose futurist Jeff Pulver noted that the Von Coalition, representing Voice Over Internet Protocol services, chimed in on the matter, suggesting that VoIP could provide solutions.
"In some cases, incumbent telephone carriers who also control the broadband network have unilaterally blocked users from communicating with VoIP over their broadband network," a Von rep wrote to [2] the Office of United States Trade in December of 2006.
"In several of these cases, the regulator has been complicit in efforts to curtail Internet voice communication. It doesn't just impact a call to a loved one or business colleague, it also threatens to disconnect U.S. troops serving oversees from their families, and thwart the kind of communications essential for lifting economies into the information age. It is precisely for these reasons that Congress just passed the Call Home Act of 2006 (S. 2653) - to ensure that armed forces personnel serving overseas are able to affordably call home including through the 'deployment of new technology such as voice over Internet protocol' and by seeking 'agreements with foreign governments to reduce international surcharges on such telephone calls'."
Some serious questions being raised here. But until the FCC starts a Notice on this issue, it can't come up with solutions—the Von Coalition's or anyone else's. In addition, the Commission has posted no further military service family comments on its docket, none since the summer.
What's the FCC waiting for? Doubtless more than a few military families hope to hear from the agency on this issue soon.
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