The plan’s supporters, including MCI and SBC Communications, have briefed the Federal Communications Commission on the proposal in the hope it will become a blueprint for regulators as they overhaul a complex network of payments between local and long-distance companies.

A proposal backed by a coalition of telephone carriers would cut billions of dollars in fees owed by long-distance companies to regional phone giants but would allow the regional companies to make up some of the difference by raising monthly phone bills for millions of consumers.

The effort to revamp a system that some claim has been rendered irrelevant by technology and competition would also make mobile and Internet-based phone companies help subsidize service in rural and poor areas -- a burden that has fallen until now on traditional telephone companies.

[ read more ]

By NICK DASCHEL, Columbian staff writer

PULLMAN — Little boys in Youngstown, Ohio, grow up with a football tethered to their hands.

Living in the heart of football country, their college dreams don’t drift far from home. No reason to, really, what with schools such as Ohio State, Penn State and Pittsburgh nearby, not to mention the Big Ten and many smaller colleges with rich football traditions.

«You could probably get to a dozen schools in about four hours from our house,» Josh Swogger said.

But when it came to picking a college, Swogger went deep. The quarterback chose Washington State, a school nearly 2,300 miles from Youngstown.

[ read more ]

World Phone Internet Services Pvt Ltd, an internet service provider, has formed a strategic alliance with online portal Rediff.com to distribute its voice over internet protocol (VOIP) calling cards, ’World Phone Premium’. Under the deal, Rediff would sell World Phone’s calling cards through its site, with options, including pay cash on delivery or by credit card, it said.

By LENIE LECTURA

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) on Friday said it was in the process of drafting a special circular requiring telecommunications companies to course promotional gimmicks through special access codes in the hopes of preventing rising incidences of „text scams.“

NTC chairman Ronald Solis told reporters that the commission would first formalize this requirement by signing a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, the Antimoney Laundering Council (AMLC), the Department of Finance, the Kapisanan ng Brodkasters ng Pilipinas, and the Philippine Information Agency.

„We will be coming up with a circular that will require carriers to direct all promo raffles to a four-digit premium number to help prevent text scams from proliferating,“ Solis said. „We are already drafting a circular. We will come up with a massive information campaign. There has to be an information dissemination to fight text scams.“

[ read more ]