The FCC announced on Friday, August 7, 2015, that the deadline for affected carriers and providers to file their annual international traffic and revenue reports this year — postponed from the usual date of July 31 — must be filed by September 30, 2015. As we noted in a previous blog post, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) new Section 43.62 international reporting requirements became effective on February 11, 2015, but the filing date for annual international traffic and revenue reports under the new framework was postponed this year due to unavailability of the FCC’s online filing system.
The FCC’s new online system is ready for action and will begin accepting submissions on August 17. The FCC is encouraging affected carriers and providers to submit their filings early in the filing window, if possible. We have tested the new system and wish to remind filers that data for most of the international traffic and revenue report components and schedules are entered directly into the online system. Some exceptions apply, specifically Schedule 1, U.S.-Billed and Foreign-Billed Facilities ICS Traffic – By Foreign Point and Schedule 3, International Private Line Service. For these two Schedules, the Commission has developed template spreadsheets. Keep in mind that each filing entity must use the same CORES federal registration number (FRN) when entering the filer’s contact information, FCC authorizations and services checklist.
The international traffic and revenue reporting requirement applies to all “common carriers engaged in providing international telecommunications service” as well as “each person or entity engaged in providing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service connected to the public switched telephone network.”
The rule establishing the usual July 31 due date has not changed so filers should assume that next year’s report will be due by July 31, 2016.
We suggest filers to become familiar with the date reporting requirements and filing process well in advance of the September 30 deadline to avoid any last minute roadblocks.
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Matthew Weinmann, a legal assistant, contributed to this post.