Qwest resorts to some tacky tactics, trading keeps pace Qwest has an interesting concept of fraud control. If the carrier finds customers who call a carrier with access rates higher than what Qwest sells the minutes for - it blocks all calls to the exchanges of the company with the higher access rates. On a state- by-state basis, that is. I learned this when customers in my Nevada exchanges complained that they could not get calls from California. Many days later after hours of following clues, Qwest's fraud control guy - John Cunningham - said that Qwest had customers who called into our system and then avoided payment for the calls. Rather than control Qwest's own accounts receivable, he ordered calls to those exchanges blocked on a selective statewide basis. That is, if Qwest doesn't make money on every call - the carrier denies access to those numbers by customers. Or, if Qwest doesn't like like the terminating subscriber's business - chop chop. It's sort of like UPS or the U.S. Postal Service telling folks that they are not going to deliver parcels or mail to rural locations - because they don't make money on those deliveries. My company has higher than average access rates. We haul minutes over some 400 miles of toll routing through a passel of class 4/5 switches. Our handful of remote folks think they should not be discriminated against. We are the United States of America. Well, perhaps the ununited States of America. Yet, Qwest is trying to get authority from several states and the FCC to be permitted to go into long distance in the former 14-state US West territory they purchased a couple of years ago. Bet they don't tell those regulatory agencies about that discrimination policy. Circuit hours per penny Power companies have a well-established network of buying and selling surplus and needed power on a "right now" basis. Those tools are being used for bandwidth trading on a worldwide basis. As an example, forward looking DS-3 purchases between New York and London have seen an effective price below $60,000 per year. That's a pile of talking for each penny. In the business of bandwidth trading, arbitrage, puts and calls are understood and part of the protocol of business. For such traders, least-cost routing means from New York to Europe combines one lower cost route to London, and then separate contracts from there to other cities. The arbitrage potential can be as low as 3% to Budapest, to 22% to Paris with a whopping plus 50% to Prague. Within the US, some rather remarkable prices for DS-3 from New York to LA are to be had. One data source is rateXchange.com. The first and last mile is still lots more. Save time and money In 1984, Congress passed House Resolution 2211, which prohibits RUS financed companies from annual fees by government agencies. Some borrowers say local BLM officials want the borrower to now prove that a specific project is using RUS funds. Guys, the intent of the law was to prohibit lease fees irrespective if the money for said facilities comes from loan or revenues to replace a mile or three of cable down a county road - which also has its hands out for every flea on the dog. Karen Pearl is the embodiment of the Nevada Telephone Association. When Nevada was fixing new fees for rights of way on freeways and lesser roads, Karen pointed out that Congress exempted RUS financed telcos from payment. A recent order from the Department of Transportation cited the federal statute and said RUS telcos were also exempt from annual payments. Now - today All our telco associations must make a full-court press on the Congress to amend this law. It must exempt all borrowers from the provisions of the Historic Preservation Act where any new facilities are replaced or repaired in existing rights of way granted pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1975 (48 USC 1764).   Copyright 2002 by A. W. Brothers and Americas Network magazine. All rights reserved.   © Beehive Telephone Co.