Communications Law Bulletin, October 2007 - Part 2

On October 16, it was reported that an order granting Neutral Tandem, Inc.’s request for direct interconnection with Verizon Wireless is circulating on the eighth floor of the FCC. On August 2, 2006, Neutral Tandem, a competitive tandem switching service provider, filed a petition requesting that the FCC order Verizon Wireless to interconnect directly with Neutral Tandem to enable it to provide more efficient tandem services to carriers exchanging traffic with Verizon Wireless. Neutral Tandem asserts that Verizon Wireless is the only major carrier that refuses to interconnect directly with Neutral Tandem and that dependency on legacy incumbent local exchange carrier tandems creates a critical choke point in the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure, exposing the public to serious homeland security risks. Verizon Wireless argues that Neutral Tandem requests the