The Federal Communications Commission said on March 27 it granted a temporary waiver of its “traffic pumping” rules to telecom services provider Inteliquent that will protect the firm from negative financial impacts of being deemed an “access-stimulating” carrier under current law because of the heavy traffic generated by Inteliquent when it carries traffic for conferencing service providers Zoom Video Communications and Cisco WebEx.
The FCC determined that those negative financial impacts for Inteliquent would impede the company’s ability to serve those conference calling services.
“This nationwide pandemic has fundamentally changed our daily lives,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a statement. “Americans across the country – me included – have transitioned to teleworking, and their kids have transitioned to remote learning. Inteliquent’s customers enable these things to happen by providing popular conference calling platforms.”
The FCC’s traffic-pumping rules, Pai said, target “companies that have been exploiting our intercarrier compensation system by generating inflated call volumes to pad their bottom lines. They weren’t intended to ensnare companies that, during a national emergency, are experiencing unprecedented call volumes that would push them out of compliance without a waiver.”
The waiver is set to expire June 1, but can be extended.
