The Eighth Circuit held today that a local call remains a local call even after it goes through a long distance network.  Alma Communications Co. v. Missouri Pub. Serv. Comm’n, No. 06-2401 (8th Cir. June 12, 2007).

Alma Communications and other local telephone companies disputed T-Mobile’s entitlement to "reciprocal compensation" for local calls that started on land-line phones but ended on cell phones.  The locals argued that their routing of the calls through a long distance carrier made them long distance calls.  T-Mobile claimed that local calls don’t lose their local character regardless of the routing.  T-Mobile won.

Barry Barnett

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