Verizon and Bandwidth​.com Agree to Exchange VoIP Traffic at $0.0007

With intercarrier compensation reform once again on the front burner at the FCC (see our January 19 post), Verizon appears to be sending a strong signal about the direction it wants rates to go. On January 18, 2011, Bandwidth​.com announced that it reached an agreement with Verizon to exchange all traffic originating from or terminating to a VoIP end user at $0.0007/mou. Bandwidth.com’s press release announcing the ​“commercial agreement” can be found here. Carriers seeking to reduce access charges or to avoid them altogether for VoIP traffic will surely point to this agreement as ​“marketplace” evidence in support of these positions.