Rural Call Completion

In this document, we seek comment on rules to implement the recently enacted Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act (``RCC Act''), which directs us to establish registration requirements and service quality standards for ``intermediate providers''--entities that transmit calls without serving as the originating or terminating provider. By giving us clear authority to shine a light on intermediate providers and hold them accountable for their performance, the RCC Act provides an important additional tool we can use in our work to promote call completion to all Americans. We anticipate that the rules we will adopt to implement the RCC Act's direction to regulate intermediate providers will complement our covered provider monitoring rule by ensuring that the participants in the call path share in the responsibility to ensure that calls to rural areas are completed. We also seek comment on sunsetting the recording and retention rules established in the 2013 RCC Order upon implementation of the RCC Act.