Remember that old saying, “waste not, want not?” It can apply to telecom. In this case, it’s referring to processing all of your call detail records (yes, even local ones.) You shouldn’t throw call detail records out prior to running a billing, and here’s why:
Profitability, Churn, & Tax Compliance: Why Subscriber Invoices Matter
Ensuring Traffic Study Accuracy: There isn’t really a need to print local CDRs or make them available for customers to review – particularly when they are predominately given away for free, but processing all of your traffic will enable you to run accurate traffic studies. The accuracy of traffic studies is crucial to the resulting accuracy of Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions. There are a couple of misconceptions regarding the USF that you should avoid:
#1 “Safe Harbor is what the FCC recommends, so that’s the formula we’re supposed to use.”
The FCC offers 3 ways to calculate your USF contributions. The FCC’s Safe Harbor assumption that 64.9% of your traffic is international/interstate - could possibly be the closest number for a handful (if I’m being generous) of ICPs. Simply assuming it’s right for your company without a traffic study is not always in your customers’ best interest.
#2 “Traffic Studies are expensive and time consuming.”
Traffic studies can be pulled from your billing platform as a report that’s broken down to reflect traffic types and their corresponding percentages. This report may then be sent to USAC by your team, or a compliance vendor, to substantiate your PIU. Traffic studies enable you to determine an accurate PIU number (percentage of interstate usage.) The difference in your actual PIU vs. the Safe Harbor number can be quite dramatic in some cases. We’ve had clients lower their PIU by more than 50% after running a traffic study.
An accurate PIU is determined by evaluating your corresponding traffic ratios. If the study determines that you’re able to lower the PIU, you can pass some of that savings on to your customer, leaving your competitors scratching their heads as to why the taxes are lower for the prospect.
Interested in learning more about this topic? Contact Sandy Beaches Software and we’ll be happy to answer any additional questions that you may have.