Reporting Requirements for U.S. Providers of International Telecommunications Services

As part of the FCC’s Data Innovation Initiative, the Commission eliminated unnecessary international reporting requirements in Part 43 of its rules and modernized and streamlined the remaining requirements.  In 2011, the Commission adopted a First Report and Order which eliminated a number of outdated international reporting requirements and reduced the number of international reports to just two: the Traffic and Revenue Report and the Circuit Status Report.  In 2013, the Commission adopted a  Second Report and Order which further streamlined these two reports by eliminating reporting requirements for over a thousand small carriers and reducing the level of detail submitted by international service providers by over 75 percent.  The Commission also adopted reforms that ensure data collections match the Commission’s needs while avoiding unnecessary or excessive burdens on international service providers.

To ensure it has a complete understanding of the international voice market, the Commission will obtain traffic and revenue data for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) international services that are connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).  In addition, to modernize the traffic and revenue report, the Commission will require service providers to separately report their international voice traffic terminated on landlines overseas and the traffic terminated on mobile networks.

The Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition filed a petition for reconsideration of certain aspects of the Second Report and Order, specifically the requirement for VoIP providers to report their international traffic and revenue and the requirement for non-common carriers that are cable landing licensees to report their capacity on all U.S.-international submarine cables, even the cable for which they are not licensees.

Carriers Should Continue to File Annual International Traffic and Revenue Reports

and Circuit-Status Reports Pursuant to Sections 43.61 and 43.82 of the Commission’s Rules

The revised reporting requirements will not be in effect for the 2013 filings, however, and carriers should continue to file their international traffic and revenue reports and circuit-status reports pursuant to the current reporting requirements.  

• Common carriers that had international circuits as of December 31, 2012, should file their 2012 circuit data by April 1, 2013, pursuant to section 43.82 and the existing Section 43.82 Filing Manual.
• Common carriers that provided international telecommunications service during 2012 should file their 2012 international traffic and revenue reports by July 31, 2013 (with any revisions due by October 31, 2013),  pursuant to section 43.61 and the existing Section 43.61 Filing Manual.

Public Notice DA 13-165 [1] 

Second Report and Order [2]

Clyburn Statement [3]

First Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [4]

Services Report Form: Excel [5] | Acrobat [6]

News Release [7]

Genachowski Statement [8]

Copps Statement [9]

McDowell Statement [10]

Clyburn Statement [11]

VON Coalition Petition for Reconsideration [12]