Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2016
Latest action · Nov 28, 2016 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 687.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedMar 19, 2015
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2016
(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require intermediate providers that offer the capability to transmit voice communications and signaling information from one destination to another, and that charge a rate to any other entity (including an affiliated entity) for such a transmission, to: (1) register with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and (2) comply with service quality standards to be established by the FCC.
An "intermediate provider" is an entity that: (1) enters a business arrangement with a long-distance voice service provider that makes the initial call path choice for more than 100,000 domestic retail subscriber lines, or with another intermediate provider, to carry, route, or transmit voice traffic from a call placed from or to an end user connection using a North American Numbering Plan resource; and (2) does not itself (directly or in conjunction with an affiliate) serve as such a long-distance initial call path choice provider in the context of originating or terminating a given call.
The bill prohibits such long-distance providers (including local exchange carriers, interexchange carriers, commercial mobile radio services, interconnected voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP] services, and certain non-interconnected VoIP services) from using an intermediate provider to transmit voice communications and signals unless the intermediate provider is so registered.
The FCC must: (1) ensure the integrity of the transmission of voice communications to all customers in the United States, (2) prevent unjust or unreasonable discrimination among areas of the United States in the delivery of such voice communications, and (3) make a registry of intermediate providers publicly available on the FCC website.
The bill shall not be construed to preempt or expand the authority of a state agency or public utility commission to collect data, or enforce state law and regulations, regarding the completion of intrastate voice communications.
Certain long-distance providers that make initial call path choices are exempt from service quality standards that the FCC is required to establish under this bill if they certify under a safe harbor provision in existing FCC rules that they monitor the performance of, or do not use, intermediate providers.
Cosponsors 10
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Mar 19, 2015 to Sep 26, 2016, with 1 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-MT | Jon Tester | Original | Mar 19, 2015 |
| D-OR | Jeff Merkley | Apr 14, 2015 | |
| D-MN | Al Franken | Jun 16, 2015 | |
| I-ME | Angus S. King Jr. | Jun 23, 2015 | |
| D-NM | Martin Heinrich | Apr 21, 2016 | |
| D-WI | Tammy Baldwin | Jun 28, 2016 | |
| R-IA | Chuck Grassley | Jul 7, 2016 | |
| R-IA | Joni Ernst | Jul 11, 2016 | |
| D-VT | Patrick J. Leahy | Sep 22, 2016 | |
| R-SD | John Thune | Sep 26, 2016 |
Actions 5
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Nov 28, 2016Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Thune with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 114-383.
- Nov 28, 2016Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 687.
- Jun 29, 2016Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
- Mar 19, 2015Introduced in Senate
- Mar 19, 2015Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 253 | Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2015 | Related bill | Sep 28, 2016 |
| HR 2566 | Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act of 2016 | Identical bill | Nov 16, 2016 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications.
Text 2
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Nov 28, 2016Reported to Senate
- Mar 19, 2015Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.