Part of the FCC rural call completion order...

Part of the FCC rural call completion order may need clarification, said the Wireline Bureau in a public notice Monday seeking comment on the need to “clarify Appendix C” (http://fcc.us/1jxp1KN). That appendix describes criteria for categorizing different types of call attempts. It’s possible that “the relevant criteria in Appendix C were inadvertently drafted in a way that fails to reflect the Commission’s clear intent” regarding the “answered” and “ring no answer” categories of call attempts, the bureau said. Level 3 and Verizon have met with commission staff recently to explain that one of the codes identified in the appendix to denote an answered call is also used to indicate that the calling party has hung up before the called party answered, the bureau said. “Level 3 contends that including calling-party hangups as answered calls would result in a ‘much higher’ reported call-completion rate than a provider would report if it excluded them,” the notice said. Verizon expressed concern about using call signaling data to identify “ring no answer” calls. Comments in docket 13-39 will be due seven days after publication in the Federal Register.