Rural Call Completion: Problems with Long Distance or Wireless Calling to Rural Areas

Rural Call Completion: Problems with Long Distance or Wireless Calling to Rural Areas

Consumers across the country continue to report problems placing and receiving long distance or wireless calls to and from rural areas on their landline telephones. If you live anywhere in the country and are having problems calling people or businesses in rural areas, you may also be experiencing the same problems.

I live in a rural area and I'm having trouble receiving calls.
If your landline telephone is working (for example, you can make calls and are receiving local calls) but you learn that long-distance or wireless callers have been unable to reach you at your home or business -- even when you are there or have an answering machine on -- you may be experiencing "failure to complete" problems.

Typical symptoms of "failure to complete" problems include the following:

Long distance or wireless callers tell you they repeatedly hear nothing or "dead air" for 10 seconds or more after they dial your number. If they stay on the line, the call may seem to be dropped or they may eventually hear a busy signal.
Long distance or wireless callers tell you they repeatedly hear prolonged ringing on their end after they dial your number (e.g., the callers wait 10-20 rings before they finally hang up).
Long distance or wireless callers tell you they repeatedly hear a recording such as "The number you have dialed is not in service" or "Your call cannot be completed as dialed" when they know they've correctly dialed your number.

Rural customers also report "poor call quality" problems. Typical symptoms include the following:

Long distance or wireless callers tell you they repeatedly hear nothing or "dead air" for 10 seconds or more before hearing ringing and you answer your phone.
Long distance or wireless callers tell you they repeatedly hear prolonged ringing (e.g., 10-20 times or more) before you answer the phone -- when you are sure the phone actually rang only a couple of times before you answered.
Consistently after you answer a call, the voice quality is unacceptable. For example, one person cannot hear the other, the sound is choppy, there are awkward transmission delays after speaking, or there is an echo.
Fax machines fail to interoperate.

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I'm having trouble calling someone in a rural area.

When calling a rural area, long distance or wireless callers may experience the following symptoms of a "failure to complete" problem:

After you dial, you hear nothing or "dead air" for 10 seconds or more. If you stay on the line, the call may seem to be dropped or you may eventually hear a busy signal.
After you dial, you hear as many as 10-20 rings even though you are reasonably sure someone should be there to answer or an answering machine should pick up.
After you dial, you hear a recording such as "The number you have dialed is not in service" or "Your call cannot be completed as dialed" when you are sure that you've correctly dialed the number and the called phone is working.

Callers to rural areas also may experience the following symptoms of a "poor call quality" problem:

After you dial, you hear nothing or "dead air" for 10 seconds or more (i.e., much longer than on other calls you make) before you hear ringing and someone answers;
After you dial, you hear prolonged ringing (e.g., 10-20 times or more) before someone answers the phone - and that person says the phone only rang once or twice at his end before he picked it up.
After you reach the person you are calling, the voice quality is unacceptable. For example, you are not calling on a wireless phone but only one person can hear the other, the sound is choppy, there are awkward transmission delays after speaking, or the speaker hears an echo. Perhaps you even try re-dialing but the unacceptable quality persists.
You try to send a long distance fax but the fax machines consistently fail to interoperate.

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What information do I need to report these problems?

The date and time the call(s) were made or attempted
The calling and called telephone numbers; and
If possible, the name of the long distance or wireless telephone service provider that serves the calling customer.

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How do I report these problems?

If you live in a rural area:
- Whenever possible, you should encourage the person trying to call you to report details of the problem to his long distance or wireless telephone service provider. The number to report such problems should appear directly on the person's monthly bill. That provider should be best able to locate the source of the problem and fix it.
- You should also provide the same information to your own local phone company so it may work with the caller's provider to isolate the problem.
If you are having trouble making long distance or wireless calls to a rural area, report details of the problem to your long distance or wireless telephone service provider. The number to report such problems should appear directly on your monthly bill. That provider should be best able to locate the source of the problem and fix it.
You can also file a complaint with the FCC.
- For the FCC to take action on your complaint, you must provide the caller's number, the called number, and the date the attempted calls or problem calls were made.
- If possible, you should also identify the long distance or wireless telephone service provider that serves the caller (i.e., the provider for the person calling the rural area) and provide the time of the calls.
- To file a complaint, complete this online Phone Complaint form. In the box labeled “Phone Issues” select “Rural Call Completion” from the pull down menu.
You can also contact the FCC by phone, fax, mail or email.

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What is the cause of these problems?

In a nutshell, the problem appears to be occurring in rural areas where long distance or wireless carriers normally pay higher-than-average charges to the local telephone company to complete calls. That is, in order for a long distance or wireless carrier to complete one of its subscriber's calls to a resident of a rural area, the carrier must get the call to the exchange serving that resident (the local phone company), and then pay a charge to that local carrier to access its exchange. The physical process of getting the call to the exchange is called "routing," and the charge paid by the long distance company to the local carrier is called an "access charge." These charges are part of the decades-old system of "access charges" that help pay for the cost of rural networks. To minimize these charges, some long-distance and wireless carriers contract with third-party "least-cost routing" service providers to connect calls to their destination at the lowest cost possible. Although many of these contracts include strictly-defined performance parameters, it appears that all too frequently those performance levels are not being met or, indeed, some calls are not even connecting at all.

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What is being done to fix these problems?

The FCC is addressing call completion and call quality problems affecting long distance, wireless, and VoIP calls to rural telephone customers on multiple fronts. In 2018, Congress passed the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2017, the RCC Act. The RCC Act requires intermediate providers—companies assisting originating phone providers to route phone calls—to register with the FCC and to comply with service quality standards that the FCC is directed to establish. The RCC Act also prohibits most long-distance and wireless providers from using an intermediate provider that is not registered with the FCC. In April 2018, the FCC adopted a Second Report and Order and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comment on implementing the new law. In addition, this Second Report and Order required most long-distance carriers to monitor and promptly remedy call completion issues. The Second Report and Order also requires long-distance carriers publish on their websites point(s) of contact information for rural call completion issues—an in-house technical expert(s) equipped to remedy rural call completion issues.

In 2017, the Wireline Competition Bureau issued a report on the effectiveness its 2013 rules requiring long distance and wireless carriers to collect data on calls attempted to rural customers and to report their performance completing those calls. The FCC subsequently issued a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comment on the issues the Wireline Bureau highlighted.

In 2013, the FCC first instituted rules to improve the Commission’s ability to monitor providers’ delivery of long-distance calls to rural areas and to prosecute violations of the Communications Act. The FCC also adopted rules giving carriers incentives to reduce their reliance on third-party "least-cost routing" service providers, as well as a rule to prevent the caller from hearing ringing before the called party's phone in reality is ringing.

In a Declaratory Ruling issued in February 2012, the FCC clarified that carrier practices that lead to call completion failure and poor call quality may violate the Communications Act's prohibition on unjust and unreasonable practices and violate a carrier's obligations under the Act to refrain from unjust or unreasonable discrimination in practices, facilities, or services. In a reference to the use of least-cost routing services, the FCC also reminded carriers that they remain responsible for the provision of service to their customers even when they contract with another service provider to carry a call to its destination. The FCC also has prohibited Voice over Internet (VoIP) providers from blocking voice calls to or from the traditional telephone network.

In addition, FCC rules that became effective in December 2011 provide both short and long-term solutions to some rural call completion problems. These rules are part of the FCC's broader reforms of the “access charge” system, called intercarrier compensation, or ICC. The ICC Order gradually reduces intercarrier fees that are at the root of much of the problem. This reduction should largely eliminate the incentives for practices that appear to be undermining the reliability of rural service. Another ICC rule bars carriers from altering the caller identification transmitted for a call, which is a common call quality complaint in rural areas.

The Commission’s rules, Declaratory Ruling, and ICC reforms are just part of the FCC's strategy to fix the rural call completion problem. Other key actions include:

A Rural Call Completion Workshop that, for the first time, brought together key stakeholders to discuss the problem and propose solutions. A second Rural Call Completion Workshop was organized by industry in April 2015 to discuss how to prevent, identify and resolve rural call completion issues. Verizon also held a workshop in April 2017, and funded a 2017 study published by the Georgetown University Security and Software Engineering Research Center (S²ERC), which explores causes of rural call completion issues.
At the urging of the FCC (see letter), the industry standard-setting body ATIS has developed and distributed an Intercarrier Call Completion/Call Termination Handbook discussing standards and practices relevant to ensuring rural call completion, such as managing least cost routing providers, and technical matters such as excessive delays in call setup, false ringing on the caller's end, and calls that appear to loop between carriers but never complete.
Ongoing investigations by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau which have resulted in the payment of more than six million dollars in fines and voluntary contributions, and significant commitments by four providers to take concrete steps to improve service going forward.
Continuing cooperation with state regulatory authority call completion rulemakings, proceedings, and enforcement actions.

We recognize that there is still more to be done -- and we will be doing more. We share the concern about this problem and its impact on rural consumers and businesses, and are dedicated to ensuring that all Americans receive high-quality telephone services.

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