[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 28 (Friday, February 9, 1996)] [Rules and Regulations] [Pages 4918-4937] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 96-2615] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 43 [DA 95-1248 ] Reporting Requirements for International Traffic Data AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Revised manual. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Common Carrier Bureau adopted a revised filing manual for international traffic data. The new manual has a separate section that consolidates the filing requirements for pure resale carriers. While the new manual did not change these requirements, the consolidated section will make it easier for small businesses which primarily provide pure resale service to report. The new manual did change the reporting requirements for facilities based traffic, which is primarily provided by large businesses. In order to protect U.S. carriers' interests, the new manual allows carriers to report some information on a proprietary basis. Both facilities-based and pure resale carriers must use this manual to report message counts, minute counts, gross revenues, international settlements amounts, and retained revenues for international communications services. The manual was adopted June 6, 1995 and approved by OMB. DATES: Traffic data for the prior calendar year must be filed by July 31. ADDRESSES: The original transmittal letter only must be filed with the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC 20554. Traffic data must be filed with the FCC Common Carrier Bureau, Industry Analysis Division, Mail Stop 1600 F, 1919 M Street NW., Washington, D.C. 20554 and with the FCC's Contract Copier (Currently International Transcription Services, Inc.), Room 246, 1919 M Street NW., Washington D.C. 20554. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Linda Blake or Jim Lande, Common Carrier Bureau, Industry Analysis Division, (202) 418-0940. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FCC Report 43.61 Approved by OMB 3060-0106. Expires 08/31/98. Estimated Average Burden Hours Per Response: 24 Hours. Manual for Filing Section 43.61 Data in Accordance With the FCC's Rules and Regulations June 1995. Notice to Individuals Section 43.61 of the Commission's Rules requires all carriers providing international service to provide traffic and revenue data. The collection of Section 43.61 traffic data stems from the Commission's authority under the Communications Act of 1934, Sections 4, 48, 48 Stat. 1066, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 154 unless otherwise noted. Interpret or apply sections 211, 219, 48 Stat. 1073, 1077, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 211, 219, 220. The foregoing Notice is required by the Privacy Act of 1974, Pub.L. 93.579, December 31, 1974, 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(e)(3), and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980. Pub.L. 96-511, section 3504(c)(3). Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 24 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including [[Page 4919]] suggestions for reducing the reporting burden to the Federal Communications Commission, Office of Managing Director, Washington, DC 20554. Contents Introduction Section 1--Definitions and General Information A. Carriers that must file International Telecommunications Service Data B. International Points used for Reporting Purposes C. Service Categories Used for Reporting Data 1. International Message Telephone Service 2. International Message Telegraph Service 3. International Telex Service 4. International Private Line Service 5. Miscellaneous or Other International Service D. Filing Country-by-Country data for Each U.S. Point Served 1. Filing by U.S. Point 2. Filing data on a Country-by Country Basis E. Billing Codes 1. Definition of Facilities-Based, Facilities Resale, and Pure Resale Service 2. Switched and Miscellaneous or Other Services 3. Private Line Service 4. Table of Billing Codes F. Measurement of Traffic and Revenues 1. Message Services a. Message Service Traffic Measures b. Message Service Revenue and Settlement Information 2. Private Line Services a. Number of Leased Circuits and Number of Equivalent Voice Grade Circuits b. Leased Circuit Revenue 3. Miscellaneous or Other International Services 4. Data Requirements Summarized by Service G. Filing Procedures Section 2--Diskette Format and Coding Instructions A. Media and File Name for Traffic Data filed on Diskette B. Record Formats C. Filing Carrier Name Field D. Year of Data Field E. U.S. Point Served Field F. International Point or Region Field G. Service Code Field H. Footnote Code Field and Comment Records I. Description Field J. Billing Code Field K. Data elements #1 through #5 (Traffic, circuits, revenue and settlements information) L. Example of a 43.61 report for a facilities-based carrier Section 3--Simplified Instructions for Pure Resale Carriers A. Definitions and Data to be Filed B. Filing Procedures C. Example of a 43.61 Report for Pure Resale Carrier D. Example Check Sheet for International Points Served Introduction This manual is organized in three sections. Section 1 defines international telecommunications service, explains the service categories, defines the data requirements, and contains filing instructions. Section 2 defines a computerized format, and explains specialized codes that facilities-based and facilities resale carriers must use for reporting data. Section 3 summarizes reporting requirements for pure resale switched services. Most pure resale carriers should be able to use Section 3 without reference to other parts of the manual. Section 43.61(a) of the FCC's Rules requires that each common carrier providing international telecommunications service between any U.S. point and any non U.S. point must file traffic and revenue data.1 This includes foreign carriers that serve a U.S. point as well as private carriers and carriers that provide non-tariffed international communications services. Section 43.61(b) mandates that carriers provide traffic and revenue data for each and every international service. Section 43.61(d) specifies that the traffic and revenue data must be furnished in accordance with this manual. \1\ 47 CFR 43.61. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 43.61 international traffic reports contain traffic and revenue information for service between the United States and international points. The data are summarized in FCC statistical reports, are used to monitor the development and competitiveness of international telecommunications markets, and are used in the facilities planning process. In addition, the FCC uses this information to develop and support United States positions in discussions with foreign governments and international standards organizations, such as the International Telecommunications Union. The manual contains reporting requirements for facilities-based, facilities resale and pure resale services.2 Facilities-based services are provided by a carrier utilizing international circuits in which it has an ownership interest. Facilities Resale services are provided by a carrier utilizing non-switched international circuits leased from other reporting international carriers. Carriers must provide detailed data for both the facilities-based and facilities resale services that they provide. Pure resale services are switched services that are provided by reselling the international switched services of other carriers. Pure resale carriers may own domestic switches and circuits, but rely on other carriers to carry switched traffic between the United States and foreign points. Carriers must separately report facilities-based, facilities resale, and pure resale service. Section 3 contains simplified reporting requirements for pure resale carriers. Only pure resale switched service is accorded simplified reporting requirements. \2\ The definitions herein of facilities-based and facilities resale service are solely intended to govern reporting of international traffic data, and are not intended for any other purpose. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The public reporting burden for the revised manual is estimated to average 24 hours including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, preparing the report, and reviewing the collection of information. The 24 hours is a weighted average response time based on 80 hours for 30 facilities-based carriers and 10 hours for 120 pure resellers. These figures represent the incremental reporting burden and do not include the time that carriers spend maintaining data for other purposes. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing the reporting burden to the Federal Communications Commission, Office of Managing Director, Washington, DC 20554. Section 1--Definitions and General Information A. Carriers That Must File International Telecommunications Service Data Section 43.61(a) of the FCC's Rules requires that each common carrier providing international telecommunications service between any U.S. point and any non U.S. point must file traffic and revenue data. This includes foreign carriers that serve a U.S. point as well as private carriers and carriers that provide non-tariffed international communications services. Section 43.61(b) mandates that carriers provide traffic and revenue data for each and every international service. Section 43.61(d) specifies that the traffic and revenue data must be furnished in accordance with this manual. International traffic and revenue data must be reported in accordance with Section 43.61 of the Rules. Section 43.61(a) states that ``[e]ach common carrier engaged in providing international telecommunications service between the area comprising the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and off-shore U.S. points and any country or point outside that area must file a report with the Commission not later than July 31 of each year for [[Page 4920]] service actually provided in the preceding calendar year.'' Telecommunications services allow the public to communicate by means of electronic signals transmitted by wire, radio, visual or other electromagnetic systems and can entail the carriage of traffic or the provision of dedicated communications channels. A service channel or circuit is a path for electronic transmission of information between two or more points. All common carriers must file international traffic data, regardless of whether service is offered pursuant to tariff. Enhanced services as defined by section 64.702 of the Commission's rules are exempt from the section 43.61 filing requirements. Enhanced services incorporate code and protocol conversion, information provision or information processing as a fundamental part of the service purchased by the customer. Simple packet switching, for example, is not considered to be an enhanced service despite the fact that the network temporarily stores packets. A packet switching service that included code and protocol conversion, however, would be considered to be enhanced unless packet switching was priced separately from code and protocol conversion. For the purpose of reporting international traffic data, an international carrier is any entity that offers international telecommunications service to non-affiliated entities for compensation. For example, a cellular carrier that resells the international switched service of another carrier must file Section 43.61 traffic data. However, a cellular carrier that merely bills international service for another carrier whose name is shown on the bill would not be considered an international carrier even if the cellular carrier also billed for itself the standard air time charges for the international call. The carrier actually providing the international service would be required to report. B. International Points Used for Reporting Purposes This manual defines three categories of geographic points. Domestic U.S. points are the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Off-shore U.S. points include U.S. possessions such as American Samoa, Guam, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Navassa Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wake Island. The Domestic U.S. and Off-shore U.S. points are collectively referred to herein as the United States or as U.S. points. All other points of the world, including ships operating in international waters, are Foreign points. Canada, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Mexico, which were not encompassed by the older term ``overseas points'', are foreign points. United States and foreign points are identified in the Common Carrier Bureau Industry Analysis Division report titled International Points used for FCC Reporting Purposes (International Points). International Points lists world points that originate or receive international telecommunications traffic. The report contains the country and region codes that must be used to file section 43.61 data. The report is published periodically and shows various classification schemes for world points. Revisions to International Points will reflect changes in political boundaries and the extent and operation of international telecommunications networks. Contact the Industry Analysis Division (202)418-0940 regarding points not listed in the tables. The geographic categories Domestic U.S., Off-shore U.S. and Foreign shall be used to determine which data must be reported. Service that both originates and terminates in Domestic U.S. points is considered to be domestic, and should not be reported under section 43.61 of the Rules. All other traffic for a United States point must be reported. The following table illustrates the classification of traffic for various pairs of points: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Service originating and terminating points Categorized Reporting status ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaska to Hawaii................ Domestic U.S. to Domestic Traffic: Domestic U.S. not reported. Alaska to Puerto Rico........... Domestic U.S. to Domestic Traffic: Domestic U.S. not reported. U.S. Virgin Islands to Puerto Off-shore U.S. to U.S. International Rico. Domestic U.S. Traffic: Reported. Alaska to Guam.................. Domestic U.S. to U.S. International Off-shore U.S. Traffic: Reported. Alaska to Japan................. Domestic U.S. to U.S. International Foreign. Traffic: Reported. Guam to Japan................... Off-shore U.S. to U.S. International Foreign. Traffic: Reported. Guam to Wake Island............. Off-shore U.S. to U.S. International Off-shore U.S. Traffic: Reported. Japan to Italy via Hawaii....... Foreign to Foreign U.S. International transiting the Traffic: U.S. Reported. Japan to Italy via Guam......... Foreign to Foreign U.S. International transiting the Traffic: U.S. Reported. Japan to Italy via ``country Foreign to U.S. to U.S. International beyond'' service of a U.S. Foreign. Traffic: Each leg carrier. of call reported as U.S. Billed. Japan to Italy via pure resale Foreign to U.S. to U.S. International U.S. Call-back service in Foreign. Traffic: Each leg Hawaii. of call reported as U.S. Billed. Japan to Italy direct........... Foreign to Foreign Foreign Traffic: not reported. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The distinction between domestic and international traffic may prove burdensome in some instances. For example, there may be instances where customers obtain international service while using a domestic telecommunications service. A domestic cellular service might be usable just outside U.S. territorial waters. The cellular carrier may have no way of knowing if its service is being used to complete an international call. If the carrier bills such a customer at domestic rates, the traffic should be considered incidental to domestic service, and need not be included in Section 43.61 reports. The opposite situation might occur where a customer uses an international maritime service while in U.S. territorial waters. Such a call to a domestic point would be a domestic call. It could be difficult for the carrier to identify and remove such traffic from its international data reports. Such traffic is incidental to international service, and may be included in Section 43.61 reports as international traffic. Carriers should footnote entries that might contain a significant amount of such traffic. C. Service Categories Used for Reporting Data Section 43.61(b) of the FCC's Rules requires carriers to provide traffic and revenue information for each and every international common carrier service that they provide to the public. Enhanced services as defined by Section 64.702 of the Rules are not common carrier services. International services may be provided over terrestrial cable, [[Page 4921]] submarine cable, microwave facilities, satellite circuits, etc. Distinctions are made based on the service provided to the customer rather than the technology employed to provide the service. The following service categories and definitions are provided solely to govern the reporting of traffic and do not bear on the legality or treatment of international services for any other purpose: 1. International Message Telephone Service International message telephone service involves the transmission and reception of speech over the public switched network for which a charge is collected on a minimum charge per call or measured time basis. Per call prices are typically calculated based on the number of minutes or fractions of minutes. Service features, such as operator assistance or credit card billing, may be offered as part of the service and may give rise to additional charges. Through use of modems and other specialized equipment, the customer can use ordinary telephone calls for the transmission of data, video and facsimile 3 messages. \3\ Most people associate the word facsimile with the use of terminal equipment that sends and receives images of a page. The electronic image is transmitted over the public switched network. Carriers should not separate this type of traffic from other types of international message telephone traffic. Our rules previously required detailed data reporting for several services that are obsolete, including one then called facsimile service. The older facsimile service was a private line service. The facsimile lines accommodated analog equipment that transmitted images at a rate of 3 to 6 pages per hour. Digital equipment was introduced in the late 1960's. Customers stopped using dedicated facsimile lines in the 1970's following the development of facsimile equipment that could utilize the public switched telephone network. Any remaining dedicated facsimile lines should be reported as private lines using the appropriate private line category. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- International message telephone services are generally tariffed on a ``through'' basis from the United States to a particular foreign point. This means that a call is charged a tariffed rate for a particular point of destination, regardless of whether the call goes directly to that country, or transits through some third point. Traditionally, service is provided jointly by a U.S. international message telephone service carrier and one or more foreign correspondent carriers under a ``joint operating agreement''. Such agreements typically specify the rights, duties, and legal obligations of each correspondent; arrangements such as ``proportionate return'' which govern the routing of traffic; and provide the accounting rate per unit of international message telephone service traffic. The accounting rate provides the basis for ``settling'' traffic balances, i.e. compensating one carrier for handling the traffic of the other. However, international message telephone service can also be provided by facilities resale arrangements which may not entail accounting rate agreements. Carriers offer many types of switched network services with different access and billing arrangements. International message telephone service includes services with dedicated access if the calls are routed through the public switched network. Accordingly, for international reporting purposes, the international message telephone service category includes traditional international message telephone service, WATS, 800 and 900 type services, custom network services, conference services, `country beyond' service, and similar services. The international message telephone service category can also include switched digital services that utilize ISDN interfaces and switched global defined network services. International message telephone service is reported with service code 1. 2. International Message Telegraph Service International message telegraph service involves the transmission and reception of record or textual matter which is not sent directly by the sender, and for which a charge is collected on a per word basis. International message telegraph service is reported with service code 2. At one time carriers were required to provide separate data for message telegraph services offered to the public, to governments, and to press entities. Carriers should report 43.61 data that represents totals for all types of customers. 3. International Telex Service Telex service involves the transmission and reception of record matter, including messages, facsimile and data, charged for on a per minute or timed basis, for which the transmission is directly controlled by the user over an exchange network dedicated to the transmission of such records. Messages may be transmitted via carrier facilities on either a direct dial or on a store and forward basis. The telex network provides for the transmission of communications alternately in either direction, but not in both directions simultaneously. Such services are also referred to as teleprinter exchange services. International telex service is reported with service code 3. Telegraph and Telex services are occasionally referred to as record services. 4. International Private Line Service Private line service is the leasing of a dedicated channel of communications (leased circuit) for specified periods of time for the customer's use. Leased private line circuits are typically priced by distance, bandwidth or capacity, and other features such as line conditioning. International private line service does not include private circuits within the United States unless such circuits are dedicated to the provision of international service and are provided pursuant to international tariffs. The international portion of the service typically begins at a point within the United States and terminates at a connection point halfway between the United States and the destination country. The remaining half of the international private line from the theoretical midpoint to the foreign destination is provided by the U.S. carrier's foreign correspondent carrier. Each carrier bills the customer separately for its half of the service. In actuality, although the service is priced on the basis of a theoretical midpoint, the international circuitry is usually provided by the U.S. and foreign carriers jointly, with each carrier owning an undivided half-interest in the circuits. Carriers should not report as international private line service data for circuits that both originate and terminate within the domestic United States, unless those circuits are dedicated for international service and are provided pursuant to international tariffs. In addition, carriers should not report facilities provided under contract to foreign carriers except to the extent that the foreign carrier is paying for facilities from the United States to the theoretical midpoint. There are six categories of private line service for reporting purposes: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Service code Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4....... Voice Circuits--provided as individual circuits. 5....... Up to 1200 bits per second (bps). 6....... 1201 bps to 9600 bps. 7....... 9601 bps to 30 Million bps (Mbps) or .01 Megahertz to 18 Megahertz, except for voice circuits. 8....... Greater than 30 Mbps to 120 Mbps or greater than 18 Megahertz to 72 Megahertz. 9....... Greater than 120 Mbps or greater than 72 Megahertz. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The voice grade category should only contain individual circuits that are [[Page 4922]] offered to accommodate a single voice circuit. This category does not include ISDN circuits or large capacity circuits provided as multiple voice grade equivalent channels. Switched and virtual private line services should not be included in the above categories and instead should be reported separately as Miscellaneous or Other International Services. These services are considered to be private lines services for some purposes. However, the reporting of revenues and circuits for switched and virtual private line services cannot easily conform to the format specified for the private line categories contained herein. 5. Miscellaneous or Other International Service The final service category includes all services that are not listed above. The category includes cablephoto service, radiophoto service, photo transmission service and addressed press service. The category also includes packet switched transmission service, occasional use television, switched video, switched and virtual private line services and some other forms of switched digital service. The category also includes any new service that differs from services listed above. Miscellaneous or Other international services are reported with service code 99. D. Filing Country-by-Country Data for Each U.S. Point Served 1. Filing by U.S. Point Carriers must file separate data for each United States point from which they originate and bill facilities-based or facilities resale service. Carriers may not consolidate facilities-based or facilities resale data for two United States points without obtaining a waiver from the FCC. Carriers may consolidate pure resale traffic for domestic U.S. points (the Conterminous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico). However, carriers may not consolidate pure resale data for an off-shore U.S. point and a domestic U.S. point, or for two off-shore U.S. points, without obtaining a waiver from the FCC. See 47 CFR Section 1.3. Carriers should not include in their report U.S. points that they do not serve. 2. Filing data on a Country-by-Country Basis For each large U.S. point, facilities-based and facilities resale carriers must provide country-by-country data on diskette for each service that they provide. However, region-by-region data may be substituted for miscellaneous services. For small U.S. points, each carrier must report world total traffic data on diskette for each service that they provide. All carriers, including pure resale carriers, must file world total traffic data for each pure resale service that they provide. Pure resale traffic need not be provided on diskette. Reporting Requirements for Facilities-Based and Facilities Resale Service ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Small U.S. points: File Large U.S. points: File country-by-country world total data \1\ on data on diskette diskette ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaska.................................... American Samoa. Conterminous U.S.......................... Baker Island. Guam...................................... Howland Island. Hawaii.................................... Jarvis Island. Puerto Rico............................... Johnston Atoll. U.S. Virgin Islands....................... Kingman Reef. Midway Atoll. Navassa Island. Northern Mariana Islands. Palmyra Atoll. Wake Island . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ \1\ Many points on this list are not served by U.S. carriers at this time. Carriers need not file data for points that they do not serve. Where country-by-country reporting is required, carriers must file separate data for each of the primary international points listed in International Points. However: (a) Carriers should omit points that would represent domestic traffic. For example, a report for Alaska should not show traffic to Hawaii. However, traffic between domestic and off-shore U.S. points must be reported. For example, a report for Alaska should include traffic to Guam. (b) Carriers may consolidate traffic as indicated by the summary codes shown in International Points. For example, Scotland has country code 280, but also summary code 326. That summary code is the country code for the United Kingdom. Traffic between a U.S. point and Scotland may be reported as Scotland traffic using country code 280 or may be included with other United Kingdom traffic and reported using country code 326. (c) Carriers should omit countries for which they have no traffic. There are no miscellaneous country codes. All traffic must be reported to a country code associated with one of the points listed in International Points. Contact the Industry Analysis Division of the Common Carrier Bureau if traffic exists for an international point that is not currently listed. The Industry Analysis Division will assign a code for that point. Where country-by-country reporting is required, carriers should also file region and world totals. International Points groups all international points into 10 regions. These regions and the reporting codes are listed in Section 2-F below. Carriers may omit country-by- country data for miscellaneous services, but must provide region and world totals on diskette. E. Billing Codes Within a service, traffic is categorized according to the ownership of facilities used to provide the service, and how the traffic was billed. Carriers must use billing codes to associate traffic statistics with a particular service type. 1. Definition of Facilities-Based, Facilities Resale, and Pure Resale Service In reporting data to the FCC, carriers must separate traffic on the basis of the ownership of facilities used to provide service. Carriers must separately report data for the three ownership categories shown below: facilities-based, facilities resale, and pure resale. The following definitions of facilities-based, facilities resale, and pure resale traffic are intended solely for reporting international traffic data, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Facilities-based services are those services provided using international transmission facilities owned in whole or in part by the carrier providing service. Facilities-based carriers use one or more international channels of communications to provide international telecommunications service. An international channel is a wire or radio link that facilitates electronic communications between a United States point and another world point. A facilities-based carrier either owns international channels, has an ownership interest in the channel such as an indefeasible right of use (IRU), or leases the channel from an entity that does not report traffic, such as Comsat. Carriers must provide detailed data for the facilities-based services that they provide. Facilities Resale services are provided by a carrier utilizing non- switched international circuits leased from other reporting international carriers. A facilities resale service is provided over international channels which are subject to Section 43.61 reporting by the underlying carrier. Carriers must provide detailed data for the facilities resale services that they provide. Pure resale services are switched services that are provided by reselling the international switched services of other carriers. Pure resale services are not provided to the public over the reseller's international channels of communications. Pure resale carriers may own domestic switches and circuits, but rely on other carriers to [[Page 4923]] carry switched traffic between the United States and foreign points. 2. Switched and Miscellaneous or Other Services Carriers are required to categorize and report international switched traffic using billing information. The primary categories are: U.S. Billed--traffic billed by U.S. carriers which originates or terminates in the United States, or which originates from `country beyond' type services; Foreign Billed--traffic which originates or terminates in the United States and is billed by a foreign or correspondent carrier; and, Transiting--traffic that originates outside of the United States, transits the United States, and terminates outside of the United States, and is billed by a foreign carrier. Within the U.S. Billed category, carriers must categorize traffic according to whether the call was billed under a `country beyond' arrangement, or under some other arrangement. `Country beyond' services are provided by U.S. carriers to customers located in foreign points. The customer initiates the call to the U.S. carrier and then provides the destination number. The U.S. carrier then completes the call. Such calls are typically billed using calling cards. Carriers must use billing codes to separate `country beyond' traffic from other U.S. billed calls. Other U.S. billed calls include international calls that are placed in the United States and are billed to the calling number, billed to another number in the United States, billed to a calling card or billed by some other arrangement. Other U.S. billed calls also include calls initiated overseas and billed to an 800 number in the United States or billed collect to the called party. Public data may be filed combining these call categories. The carriers proprietary filing must use billing codes to distinguish `country beyond' traffic data from other U.S. billed traffic data. Note that data are not reported with sufficient granularity to separate traffic solely on the basis of whether it originates or terminates in the United States. The same billing code is used for calls that are dialed directly from the United States, and for calls that originate in a foreign point but are billed collect in the United States by the U.S. carrier. Not all carriers will provide all possible categories of traffic. Carriers should file data only for billing types that they actually provided during the year. A carrier may aggregate all pure resale international traffic, including traffic from call-back service. Call-back service is described on page 38, of the manual. Carriers may not aggregate pure resale traffic with either facilities-based or facilities resale traffic. Traffic between some U.S. points will be reported as U.S. billed for the point where it is billed, and as foreign billed for the other end of the call. For example, a sent paid call from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico will be reported as a U.S. billed call by the carrier serving the U.S. Virgin Islands, and will also be reported as a foreign billed call by the carrier serving Puerto Rico. This would be the case even if the same carrier served both points. In fact, the same call would be reported three times if it originated in an off-shore U.S. point, transited a domestic U.S. point, and terminated in another off-shore U.S. point. U.S. billed and foreign billed switched traffic is reported by the foreign point in which the call originates or terminates, irrespective of foreign points through which the call may transit. Transiting traffic is reported for the country in which the call originates. 3. Private Line Service International private line service typically links a location within the United States with a location in a foreign point. The service is provided jointly by the U.S. carrier and the foreign correspondent carrier, and is usually accounted as if the U.S. carrier provides service to the theoretical mid-point of the service. Thus, the U.S. carrier tariffs a half circuit for its portion of the service, and the foreign correspondent carrier likewise tariffs a half circuit. With private line service, the customer billing address may be located in a foreign country and the bill may be rendered by the foreign carrier that provides the other half of the circuit. Even so, this service is classified as U.S. billed because the customer has a United States presence and the choice of billing location is arbitrary. The fact that a foreign carrier may act as a billing agent is irrelevant. In sum, U.S. carriers must report the portion of the service that they tariff. Private lines are categorized by the foreign point in which the line terminates. Facilities-based private line service should be reported using billing code 1. Private line service provided over resold facilities should be reported using billing code 11. 4. Table of Billing Codes The following table provides the billing codes for switched and private line services. Note that carriers must report separately facilities-based, facilities resale, and pure resale traffic. Table of Billing Codes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Type of service provision ------------------------------------------------------ Facilities based Facilities resale Pure ---------------------------------------------- resale -------- Confidential Public Confidential Public Public filing filing filing filing filing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWITCHED AND MISCELLANEOUS SERVICE U.S. Billed (Traffic Billed by reporting U.S. carriers): Call originate in U.S. point served: Billed to the calling number account............. 1 1 11 11 21 Billed to a calling card or other billing arrangement..................................... 1 1 11 11 21 Calls Originate outside U.S. point served: Billed collect to a U.S. customer................ 1 1 11 11 n.a. Billed to a U.S. 800 service number.............. 1 1 11 11 n.a. Billed to a calling card or other billing arrangement..................................... 4 1 14 11 21 Foreign Billed (Traffic billed by foreign or corresponding carrier): Calls originate in U.S. point served: Billed collect to a foreign customer............. 2 2 12 12 n.a. Billed to a foreign 800 service number........... 2 2 12 12 n.a. [[Page 4924]] Billed to a foreign carrier calling card or other arrangement..................................... 2 2 12 12 n.a. Calls originate outside U.S. point served and terminate in the U.S. point: Billed to the calling number account............. 2 2 12 12 n.a. Billed to a foreign carrier calling card or other arrangement..................................... 2 2 12 12 n.a. Transiting (Traffic that originates and terminates outside the U.S point served): Traffic billed by foreign or corresponding carrier:.. 3 3 13 13 n.a. Private Line Service All Circuits............................................. 1 1 11 11 n.a. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F. Measurement of Traffic and Revenues This section provides guidance for measuring traffic and revenues. Each service has unique characteristics that create special concerns. For example, a customer who places a telephone call to a foreign country may not be aware that the call originates in a Local Access Transport Area (LATA), crosses a Point of Presence (POP) to the interexchange network of an interLATA carrier, is switched through international facilities to a foreign carrier, and is then terminated in a foreign local exchange. The customer need not consider the various arrangements under which several carriers share the revenue from the call. The private line customer, on the other hand, leases a specific amount of capacity between two specified points. The customer may use a variety of arrangements to get traffic to and from the leased circuit and may use the circuit for several types of communications. The private line customer is concerned with the charges for each specific link in its network. These and other differences between message and private line services lead to differences in the ways that carriers should measure traffic and revenues. The following sections cover message and private line services. The guidelines should be used for miscellaneous international services as appropriate. 1. Message Services For each message service (telephone, telegraph, and telex) carriers must report data for each billing type--principally U.S. billed, foreign billed, and transiting. The data shall consist of a message count, the duration of the messages, the billed revenue for the messages (when U.S. billed), settlements associated with the messages, and the net revenue for the messages. Carriers must report traffic data on a calendar year basis. Thus, the carrier should report the actual traffic carried during the year. Revenues and settlement amounts should be measured on an accrual basis, rather than on an actual receipts or actual settlement basis unless rates have been adjusted retroactively. The amounts reported should not reflect prior year adjustments or corrections. Accordingly, carriers cannot legitimately report negative amounts in the message, minute, revenue, or settlement data fields. Even though there is a significant lag between the end of the reporting year and the final data filing in October of the following year, carriers may not have complete settlement data for some countries. In such instances, carriers should make a good faith effort to estimate settlement receipts, and note the fact in the filing. Section 2 describes the preparation of footnote records. Carriers should not adjust subsequent year reports when out of period data becomes available. Instead, these amounts, if significant, should be noted in the subsequent year filing. a. Message Service Traffic Measures Carriers must report the number of billed messages for international message telephone, international message telegraph and international telex services, except that messages may be omitted for transiting traffic. Data should be reported for all billed traffic, regardless of whether the customer is an end user or another carrier. All billed traffic should be reported, even calls that have been billed but written off as uncollectible. Unbillable traffic, however, should not be reported.4 \4\ For example, call-back customers place calls to their U.S. carriers, but hang up after one ring. The U.S. carrier does not answer the call, but rather detects that a call was made, and then calls back. Since the initial call was not answered and is not billable, it should not be reported by either the underlying facilities based carrier or by the call-back carrier. The call back to the customer, however, should be reported. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carriers must report the number of minutes for international message telephone and telex services. For facilities-based and facilities resale service, carriers should report the number of minutes upon which correspondent carriers will be compensated. For facilities- based service, compensation generally is governed by the settlement process. Settlement compensation is based on conversation minutes. Settlement minutes averaged 5% to 6% less than billed minutes for traffic billed in the United States for 1988 through 1990. If the correspondent carrier is not compensated for traffic based on call length, then the number of minutes should be based on conversation minutes. U.S. carriers should classify as transiting traffic all foreign billed calls that both originate and terminate in foreign points. U.S. carriers should classify as U.S. billed ``country beyond'' calls which originate in foreign points, are placed through the carrier, and are billed by the carrier. The U.S. carrier may owe settlements for two legs of a ``country beyond'' call--one settlement amount for the country where the call originates, and another for the country where the call terminates. In this case, the number of minutes used for settlement purposes will equal roughly twice the number of conversation minutes. Since carriers do not make settlement payments for their pure resale traffic, carriers should report the number of minutes billed to customers, which can be based on billing information received from the underlying carrier. Word counts must be reported for international message telegraph service. [[Page 4925]] Carriers should report the number of words used for settlement purposes. All message data must be reported on a message or end-to-end basis. This means that calls should be reported based on the billing location and the ultimate points of origin or terminus.5 Transiting minutes should be reported by the country in which the call is initiated. \5\ At one time carriers were required to report traffic on two schedules. The circuit traffic (CT) schedule showed all U.S. traffic that went to or from a particular country, including traffic that transited through that country to a third country. The message traffic (MT) schedule showed all traffic that originated or terminated in a particular country, including traffic that had transited through a third country. The current requirements are more similar to the MT schedule. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- b. Message Service Revenue and Settlement Information For each service that it provides, each carrier must report separately billed revenues, settlement receipts due (on services billed by correspondent carriers), settlement payments owed (on services billed by the carrier), and the revenues they retain net of all settlements. In the proprietary filing, carriers must use the specified billing codes to separate traffic that it carriers over its own facilities from traffic it carriers over facilities leased from other reporting carriers. Billed revenues are equal to the amounts that carriers billed to customers for service at tariffed rates. Billed revenues should reflect all discounts given to customers. Reported revenues should reflect amounts actually billed to customers, including discounts that are calculated after individual calls are rated. For example, discounts which are calculated based on the total bill amount should be allocated proportionally to international calls on a country-by-country basis. However, if a discount is only calculated based on domestic billings, then discounts should not be allocated to international service. The cost of promotional items such as telephone sets, frequent flyer miles, or merchandize credits, are marketing expenses and should not be treated as revenue reductions. Credits or coupons for the purchase of future communications services should be treated, when earned or issued, the same as direct discounts credited to the customer, with no allowance for the percentage of coupons which will not be used, and no adjustments for costs of administering the promotion. Billed revenues should not be reduced to reflect uncollectibles or transit fee expenses. Transit fees are owed when a call transits a foreign carrier's facilities in one international point before terminating in a second international point. Settlement amounts and transit fees owed to the transiting carrier should be included with settlements owed. Billed revenues should not include tax amounts that are itemized on the customer bill and remitted directly to taxing authorities, and should only include amounts that are recorded as revenues in the company books of account. U.S. carriers have contractual relationships with foreign carriers so that telephone calls can be made between local exchanges in the United States and local exchanges in foreign countries. The foreign carrier in the relationship is usually called the foreign correspondent. Accounting rate agreements specify the amounts that carriers pay to their foreign correspondents on a per minute or similar basis for facilities based service. When the U.S. carrier bills an international call, it owes a settlement amount to the foreign correspondent. When the foreign correspondent bills an international call, the U.S. carrier is owed a settlement amount. The carriers usually balance the amounts due and make net payments. The amounts due to U.S. carriers, including separate transit fees, if any, are referred to herein as settlement receipts. The amounts owed by U.S. carriers to foreign corespondents, including separate transit fees, if any, are referred to herein as settlement payments. Settlement payments do not include the amounts that pure-resale carriers pay to underlying U.S. carriers. Settlement payments do not include the access charge amounts that U.S. carriers pay to U.S. local exchange carriers for originating or terminating calls. The U.S. carrier retained revenue is equal to billed revenue plus settlement receipts minus settlement payments. There are instances where carriers in two international points do not charge each other settlements. This might be the case where the carriers are affiliates, or where facilities resale service is being provided. In such cases, carriers should report as settlements owed any amounts owed to foreign carriers that would be analogous to settlement amounts, including charges for originating or terminating traffic in the foreign carrier's toll network or local exchange. However, carriers should not include as settlements any costs of the underlying facilities being used to provide service. Also, payments to U.S. carriers for originating or terminating calls in U.S. toll networks or local exchanges should not be reported. Where zero amounts are entered as settlement payments for U.S. billed service, carriers should footnote the reason. See Section 2 for instructions on including footnotes in the data files. In a report for a U.S. point, U.S. carriers should not have billed revenue for foreign billed traffic. Similarly, U.S. carriers should not have settlement receipts for U.S. billed traffic. Accounting agreements may be denominated in dollars, foreign currency units, or other monetary measures. All revenue and settlement payment information must be stated in U.S. dollars regardless of the terms of the accounting agreements or industry practices. Carriers should apply the currency conversion rates that prevailed at the time actual settlements were made. Some international calls are initiated in foreign points by customers using ``country beyond'' services of a U.S. carrier. These calls may terminate in the United States or in other foreign points. Billed revenue for such a call should be reported for the country in which the call originated. Reported settlements should include amounts owed to carriers in both the originating country, and the terminating country, in the case of calls that terminate in foreign points. 2. Private Line Services This section provides guidance for reporting private line circuit counts and revenues on a country-by-country basis. Carriers must report separately circuits that they own from circuits that they provide on a resale basis. As detailed in section 1-E-1 above, international circuits should be reported as resold only if they have been leased from a carrier subject to Section 43.61 reporting requirements and only if the circuits are leased to customers or other carriers in the form of private line service. If the carrier has combined some owned and some leased international circuits in order to provide a through circuit, then the circuit should be reported as facilities based. a. Number of Leased Circuits and Number of Equivalent Voice Grade Circuits A leased circuit is a single leased channel of communications that links two specific points. Leased circuits should be categorized according to the six private line categories shown on page 12 of the manual. Circuits are not categorized according to how the customer actually uses them. Counts of leased circuits should be provided as of December 31 of the year for which data are being reported. Carriers should not attempt to convert part day leases into equivalent full day circuits, but a circuit [[Page 4926]] leased by different customers for different hours on December 31 should be reported as a single circuit. Companies should not report non-tariff circuits provided to affiliates. Those circuits should be treated as the affiliate's circuits if they are used to provide a reportable international service. If the company had an ownership interest in the international circuits, then the affiliated carrier would be providing facilities- based service. If the company had obtained the international circuits by lease, then the affiliated carrier could be providing facilities resale service. Carriers are also required to provide the number of voice equivalent circuits for the leased circuits provided as of December 31 of the year for which data are being reported. Voice equivalent circuits should be estimated by converting the total bandwidth of circuits leased to an international point. The standard conversion is based on 64 kilo bits per second for one voice equivalent channel. The figure should be rounded to the nearest whole number. An 18 megahertz video channel should be reported as 240 voice equivalent channels, a 24 megahertz video channel should be reported as 288 voice equivalent channels, and a 36 megahertz video channel should be reported as 630 voice equivalent channels. The number of voice equivalent circuits should be consistent with the data used to calculate regulatory fees as well as amounts filed in FCC circuit reports. b. Leased Circuit Revenue Private line and leased circuit service revenues should include only revenue from service provided under international tariffs. Private line and leased circuit service revenue should not include revenue for circuits that originate and terminate within the United States unless those circuits are provided under an international tariff. Private line revenues should include any service set up, installation, and termination charges. Private line revenues do not include billings made on behalf of domestic or foreign carriers for service provided by those carriers. Private line revenues should include revenue billed by a foreign carrier on behalf of the U.S. carrier for service provided by the U.S. carrier, even if the revenue has not yet been remitted to the U.S. carrier. Carriers must report the total private line revenues due for the calendar year, regardless of whether a lease was in effect at year end. Where lease or bill periods overlap the calendar year, billed amounts should be apportioned between years based on the number of days of service in each year. Private line revenues should not include taxes included on the customer bill. Billed revenues should reflect all discounts given to customers. Reported revenues should reflect amounts actually billed to customers, including discounts that are calculated based on total charges for all services. Discounts which are calculated based on the total bill amount should be allocated proportionally to international circuits. The cost of promotional items such as telephone sets, frequent flyer miles, or merchandize credits, are marketing expenses and should not be treated as revenue reductions. Credits or coupons for the purchase of future communications services should be treated the same as direct discounts, with no allowance for the percentage of coupons which will not be used, and no adjustments for costs of administering the promotion. 3. Miscellaneous or Other International Services The category miscellaneous or other international services potentially includes a wide variety of services. For the most part, carriers must select and report the most relevant traffic measures. However, providers of packet switched services should report the number of kilo segments transmitted during the year; providers of occasional use television service should report the number of hours of service provided; and switched video service providers should report the number of sessions and the number of minutes of service. See the chart on page 34 of the manual. 4. Data Requirements Summarized by Service The following table summarizes the Section 43.61 data filing requirements by service category: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facilities-based and facilities resale Pure resale service service * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ International message By country and Countries served. telephone service. billing type: World totals by messages, minutes, billing type: carrier revenues, messages, minutes, settlement and carrier payments, retained revenues. revenue. International message By country and World totals by telegraph service. billing type: billing type: messages, words, messages, words, carrier revenues, and carrier settlement revenues. payments, retained revenue. International telex service. By country and World total by billing type: billing type: messages, words, messages, words, carrier revenues, and carrier settlement revenues. payments, retained revenue. Private line................ By country and * * service category: leased circuits, voice equivalent circuits, revenues. Other international services Region totals by World total by billing type: billing type: messages, minutes, messages, minutes, words, leased words, kilo circuits, voice segments, sessions, equivalent contracts, and circuits, kilo carrier revenues as segments, sessions, appropriate. contracts, carrier revenues, settlement payments, retained revenue as appropriate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Pure resale carriers normally will not have settlement payments. Payments to underlying U.S. carriers should not be reported as settlements. ** Resale of private lines (either as private line service or as switched service) is classified as facilities resale service, not pure resale service. G. Filing Procedures Section 43.61(a) directs carriers to file reports by July 31, reporting service actually provided in the preceding calendar year. Section 43.61(c) provides that carriers shall submit a revised report by October 31 identifying and correcting errors in the July 31 filing. Carriers do not need to file revised data where figures change due to corrections that normally occur in the billing and settlement cycles if the corrected figures are within five percent of the figures filed in the July 31 filing. Carriers must refile a corrected version of each data record on which one or more data elements was found to be in error by more than five percent. The five percent guideline covers fluctuations in traffic or revenue totals due to corrections and true- ups that occur during the billing [[Page 4927]] and settlement process. Carriers must file corrections for all instances where they have filed erroneous data due to procedural mistakes made while compiling or reporting data. The following schedule details the number of copies required and the location to which those copies should be delivered. This schedule applies to the July 31 and October 31 filings. Carriers that provide only pure resale international services are not required to file data on diskette. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Certification and Mailing address Transmittal letter paper copy of report Data on diskette* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FCC Secretary, Mail Stop 1170, 1919 Original.................... ...................... .................... M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20554. FCC Common Carrier Bureau Industry 2 copies.................... Original and 1 copy of 1 set. Analysis Division, Mail Stop 1600 both public and F, 1919 M Street, N.W., Washington, confidential versions. D.C. 20554. The FCC's Contract Copier **, Room 1 copy...................... 1 copy public version 1 set. 246, 1919 M Street, N.W., only. Washington, D.C. 20037. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Pure resale traffic, and summary data for smaller U.S. points need not be filed on diskette. See page 14 of the manual. ** Currently International Transcription Services, Inc. Paper copies must contain data that are identical to the data filed on diskette. Page headings must clearly indicate the filing entity, the United States point covered, and the service being reported. Column headings must describe the data contained in each column. The carrier must include footnote text to explain the specific circumstances of any data for the current period which differs materially from that for the previous period if the difference is not self-explanatory but was caused by unusual circumstances not explained in a previous report. The paper copies of the 43.61 data must include the text of any footnotes. A data field is provided in the diskette record format to indicate that a footnote has been included in a separate data file record as well as in the paper copies. The paper copies and comment records in the data files should also contain any additional data or information that the carrier deems relevant or necessary to understanding the data it is required to file. The transmittal letter should identify the name of the carrier, the date of the filing, and should state that Section 43.61 data has been filed with the Common Carrier Bureau's Industry Analysis Division and the Commission's current contract copier. The original of the transmittal letter should be filed with the Secretary of the FCC. Copies of the transmittal letter should be filed with the Industry Analysis Division and the Commission's current contract copier. Carriers must certify the accuracy of the data submitted in FCC Report 43.61 by including a signed certification statement as the last page of the paper report. The statement must be signed by an officer of the reporting carrier. An officer is a person who occupies a position specified in the articles of incorporation (or partnership agreement), and would typically be president, vice president for operations, vice- president for finance, comptroller, treasurer or a comparable position. If the carrier is a sole proprietorship the owner must sign the certification. The original and one copy of the certification statement should be filed with the Industry Analysis Division. One copy of the certification should be filed with the Commission's current contract copier. For additional information, comments or suggestions, contact the Common Carrier Bureau's, Industry Analysis Division (202) 418-0940. The text of the certification statement is included below: Certification I certify that I am an officer of ____________________; that I have examined the foregoing report and that to the best of my knowledge, information and belief, all statements of fact contained in this report are true and that said report is an accurate statement of the affairs of the above named respondent in respect to the data set forth herein for the period from __________ to __________. Printed Name----------------------------------------------------------- Position--------------------------------------------------------------- Signature-------------------------------------------------------------- Date------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 2 Diskette Format and Coding Instructions A. Media and File Name for Traffic Data Filed on Diskette Data should be provided on 3\1/2\'' floppy diskettes formatted for IBM or IBM compatible personal computers. Carriers serving more than one United States point should provide one file for each point served. All files may be included on the same diskette. The record files should be named according to the following convention: aaaaaaYY.436 where: aaaaaa are 3 to 6 alpha characters that identify the filing entity and U.S. point. YY is the last two digits of the calendar year for which data are being filed. .436 is the file extension, (short for 43.61). For example: ATTVI91.436 might signify AT&T's Virgin Islands data for 1991 GRPHNT91.436 might signify Graphnet's complete filing for 1991 Carriers may file data in more than one file. All files may be placed on the same diskette. Carriers filing multiple files should give each file a unique name. B. Record Formats The data files may contain comment records and data records. A comment record has a blank space (ASCII character 32 or `` '') in the first position in the line, contains less than 132 characters, and ends with a carriage return. Comment records can be used to provide headings, formatting, and footnotes in the data file. A listing of the data file can be used as the paper copy of the data for filing purposes. All data records must be provided using the record format set forth herein. Each record shall consist of a string of ASCII characters. Fields with ``character'' content should be left justified within the stated field boundary and may contain the ASCII characters ``A'' through ``Z'', ``a'' through ``z'', ``,'', ``.'', ``-'', ``+'', ``/'', ``&'', ``#'', ``*'', ``!'', ``:'', ``;'', ``0'' through ``9'', and blank spaces (ASCII character 32). Fields with ``number'' content should be right justified within the field boundary, and may contain the ASCII characters ``-'', ``0'' through ``9'' and leading blank spaces, but no commas, decimal points, or other characters. The character ``-'' signifies a negative value and should appear in the field to the left of the value. Negative values are only possible for retained revenue, where the settlement payout owed exceeded the billed revenue for a switched service. Each data record should contain the following fields: [[Page 4928]] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Justification within Field Record Field Field contents field size positions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Filing Carrier Name............. characters left 15 1-15 2. Year of data.................... numbers right 2 16-17 3. U.S. Point served............... numbers right 5 18-22 4. International Point or region... numbers right 5 23-27 5. Service code.................... numbers right 3 28-30 6. Footnote indicator.............. characters right 3 31-33 7. Description..................... characters left 36 34-69 8. Billing Code.................... numbers right 2 70-71 9. Data field #1................... numbers right 12 72-83 10. Data field #2................... numbers right 12 84-95 11. Data field #3................... numbers right 12 96-107 12. Data field #4................... numbers right 12 108-119 13. Data field #5................... numbers right 12 120-131 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The data fields are further described in Section 2-K below. Data files can be created using standard editors, word processors spreadsheet programs, data base programs and custom programs. For example, to create a data file using a spreadsheet: --Set the column widths to equal the field size shown above. Thus, the first column would be 15 characters wide. --Enter fields as using a ``label'' format, rather than using a ``numeric value'' format. Be careful not to include extra spaces at the end of the line. --Specify a generic or character oriented printer (the lotus 3.1 sequence would be
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Document Information
- Published:
- 02/09/1996
- Department:
- Federal Communications Commission
- Entry Type:
- Rule
- Action:
- Revised manual.
- Document Number:
- 96-2615
- Dates:
- Traffic data for the prior calendar year must be filed by July 31.
- Pages:
- 4918-4937 (20 pages)
- Docket Numbers:
- DA 95-1248
- PDF File:
- 96-2615.pdf
- CFR: (1)
- 47 CFR 43