[asterisk-biz] CLEC formation was Re: MagicJack

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Tue, 2008-03-25 at 08:00 -0500, Mike Hammett wrote:
> Tell them I sent you.
> 
> http://www.lokt.net/
> > On Friday 21 March 2008 12:29:38 pm Nitzan Kon wrote:
> > So how does one get CLEC status?  Say, in only one state?  Just 
> > curious....
> > <evil grin>
> >

I dont have experience with this firm, but I do agree with its
sentiment, that its generally better to hire lawyers and/or consultants
to help people along given that there is a TON of filings that generally
have to be done, and they have to be done right.  The law firm should
specialize in telecom law, just as you want a heart surgeon to
specialize in hearts, and wouldnt have a angioplasty performed by a
podiatrist.

Just knowing what filings have to be filed is important, and they have
to be filed in a specific order, do them out of order and you may have
to start over on some things, miss one and it can cost you months of
trying to refile stuff.  The process on a good day takes 6-9 months on a
bad day well over 24 months.  With many of the things you have to submit
them for approval (tariffs for example, some states even the
interconnection agreements have to be approved).  There are shortcuts
and a good consultant or lawyer will know them and use them to your
advantage (such as basically taking already approved tariffs from
someone else and replacing their name with yours, speeds the approval
process).

Then once you have your CLEC status you have to continue to file stuff,
pay taxes and fees, etc.  And each state has its own regulations (50
states, DC is a territory, as are a few other territories  not
considered US generally, puerto rico, guam, US virgin islands, etc).  If
you traffic minutes across LATAs you have to get IXC status which has
its own regulations, taxes and fees.  All of these things are generally
exempt from VoIP providers (although the line is blurring with the
"interconnected VoIP provider" rules).  

In addition to the state you have to file federally too, so even one
state has at least 2 governments that you have to file with.  To do
CONUS (US48 + DC) you have 50 governments to file with, taxes are
different per state, and CLECs are generally exempt from all subsidies
as well (ie NECA), but they have to pay to the fund.

Its a regulatory quagmire.  I personally dont recommend it unless its a
real business need, and compensation generally isnt a good enough need
because almost all CLECs see almost no compensation per minute.  The FCC
cap on intercarrier compensation is generally 0.0007/min iirc, with some
special exceptions that are almost impossible for a CLEC to fit into.

Of course with anything there are alternatives and sometimes it takes
someone who has been down that road and discovered some of them to show
all the short cuts that are available.  There is power in this
information, a point not lost on consulting firms that specialize in
clec formation.  That is why many CLEC consultants charge no less than
$50k to share their knowledge.  

-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
http://www.trxtel.com the phone company that pays you!