"The Federal Communications Commission today voted and passed a requirement that interconnected VoIP service providers report significant network outages that meet specific criteria and thresholds. The goal is to ensure 911 system reliability and perhaps customer awareness of fly-by-night VoIP operations that are just trying to make a buck," reported Tom Keating at TMC. CNET had a good article about it as well.

Here's the FCC's announcement and links to the order and docs.

On the VoiceOps list, one guy wrote that the didn't think the FCC would get good data. It's likely true because how do they track 1100+ VoIP Providers - wholesalers, white-labels, Asterisk-boxers, DIY-ers???? And what is an outage? 5 minutes? 15 minutes? An hour? What if the VoIP is OTT (over-the-top), as many VoIP companies sell it as BYOB, and the broadband has an outage? that affects the VoIP and the 911 access. It will require a death and lawsuit to settle this probably.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC. Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy. Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or http://rad-info.net

Alteva has sales training for agents - and they charge for it!! Two days for $350. Alteva offered this 2-day training at ITEXPO East in Miami Beach on Jan. 31- Feb. 1. Then Louis Haynor, CSO of Alteva, and their partner, Jim Riley at Apptix, had a panel (that was video taped by Alteva) about Certification. The question asked: What is the economic impact on Channel, Carrier, Customer of Cert? Interesting answer is that for Cloud Services, Education is needed in the marketplace and within the Industry for sales. More here.

Alianza landed a deal with Clearwire. "Alianza will oversee day-to-day voice operations for Clearwire and supply all end-to-end software components of the hosted voice platform, including soft switch, application feature server, call rating, CPE provisioning, monitoring, security, and end-user self-support tools," according to the article. Apparently voice over 4G won't be the same as voice over 1G and 2G networks. Interesting.

This is kind of cool:

Change the way you think about the phone call! I found this video about Thrutu via Rich Tehrani's eye opening article about the future of telco competition. It isn't about the phone call -- it's about how customers want to communicate.

So Dean Parker of Callis in Mobile has been in the news quite a bit recently. (Supplanting Sonic CEO Dane Jasper for now.) Apparently, Dean is spending some time in Washington: Meet Tech Entrepreneur Dean Parker: Revolutionizing Cloud Communications and Dean guest speaking at MindShare in DC. And he was at ITEXPO in Miami - we passed in the halss a couple of times. Nice PR work.

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC. Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy. Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or http://rad-info.net

And all the things that the FCC is working on.

The FCC overhauling Lifeline too! ECT may not be the business to be in when the FCC starts picking primary and secondary in each market.

FCC's $4B digital divide plan: How the FCC is going to use USF funding to close the digital divide - access to the rest of America.

a bunch of docs about USF Reform and Inter-Carrier Compensation reform.

"In keeping with its arcane practice of releasing final written regulatory orders days and sometimes months after they are voted on, the Federal Communications Commission has so far issued only an executive summary of its important Universal Service Fund / Intercarrier Compensation reform.

Here's one summary of the USF Reform Order. "The Order and Final Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, of ultimate importance to American's rural telecom providers, was adopted by unanimous vote by the Commission this morning." The full 7-page summary is in PDF here.

This is the headline for the USF Reform order: FCC CREATES 'CONNECT AMERICA FUND' TO HELP EXTEND HIGH-SPEED INTERNET TO 18 MILLION UNSERVED AMERICANS; CREATING JOBS & INCREASED CONSUMER BENEFITS. Agency delivers bipartisan vote to modernize America's communications infrastructure and expand broadband throughout the nation. 5 PDF's [press release], [statement of Chairman], [statement of Commish Copps], [Statement of Commish McDowell approving and concurring] and [statement of Commmish Mignon Clyborn]:

Connect America Fund (WC Docket No. 10-90); A National Broadband Plan for Our Future (GN Docket No. 09-51); Establishing Just and Reasonable Rates for Local Exchange Carriers (WC Docket No. 07-135); High-Cost Universal Service Support (WC Docket No. 05-337); Developing an Unified Inter-carrier Compensation Regime (CC Docket No. 01-92); Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service (CC Docket No. 96-45); Lifeline and Linkup (WC Docket No. 03-109) and Mobility Fund (WT Docket No. 10-208)

"We are taking a momentous step today—moving ever so close to fulfilling the goal Congress set forth for universal service in the 1996 Telecommunications Act—to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable voice and advanced communications services."

Connect America Fund and Intercarrier Compensation Reform Order and FNPRM Executive Summary.

"The annual funding target is set at no more than $4.5 billion over the next six years."

"In addition to creating a new process for the distribution of the funds, the FCC also changed the rules associated with Inter-Carrier Compensation (ICC). Although, this was expected, Broadvox and other ISPs and ITSPs will have to conduct further analysis to determine how these changes will impact our carrier/wholesale business," David Byrd, SVP at Broadvox, wrote.

CONNECT AMERICA FUND; A NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN FOR OUR FUTURE; ESTABLISHING JUST AND REASONABLE RATES FOR LOCAL EXCHANGE CARRIERS; HIGH-COST UNIVERSAL SERVICE SUPPORT; DEVELOPING AN UNIFIED INTER-CARRIER COMPENSATION REGIME; FEDERAL-STATE JOINT BOARD. Today the Commission comprehensively reforms and modernizes the universal service and inter-carrier compensation systems to ensure that robust, affordable voice and broadband service, both fixed and mobile, are available to Americans throughout the nation. (Dkt No. 10-90 01-92 10-208 96-45 05-337 07-135 03-109 09-51 ). Action by: the Commission. Comments Due: 01/18/2012. Reply Comments Due: 02/17/2012. Adopted: 10/27/2011 by R&O. (FCC No. 11-161). WCB WTB

Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC. Service Providers have called on RAD-INFO INC for assistance building a channel, improving sales, managing online marketing efforts, and overall company strategy. Contact RAD-INFO INC at 813-963-5884 or http://rad-info.net