Call Center - Answering Service & Telecom Firms
 

Telecommunications Act of 1996

One of the biggest impacts ever felt by the telecom industry has been at the hands of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Call centers and answering services have to, by law follow the instructions in the act, or face heavy fines and penalties. Among the restrictions imposed on call centers are no calling after 9pm, unless the answering service or call center has a business relationship that is ongoing. So if it is a client already or even an inquiry for call center services, we can call anyone. But if they are not a client or they don't have a business rleationship, then we cannot call them no matter what state they reside in.

The Government released a Report Summary that was interesting:

The Report answers four basic questions the Commission laid out in the Notice of Inquiry that it issued earlier this year:

1. What is advanced telecommunications capability?
   The Commission retains its current definition: infrastructure capable of delivering a speed of 200 kilobits per second (Kbps) in each direction, while the Commission denominates as "high-speed" those services with over 200 Kbps capability in at least one direction.

    

2. Is advanced telecommunications capability being deployed to all Americans?

    

   • There were a total of approximately 2.8 million high-speed and advanced services subscribers, as of December 31, 1999.

      

   • 1.8 million of these subscribers are residential or small business customers.

      

   • Approximately 1.0 million of the 1.8 million subscribers subscribe to services which meet the Commission's definition of advanced services (services with speeds in both directions of at least 200 Kbps) - this is a three-fold increase from the previous year.

      

   • In the First Report there were approximately 375,000 subscribers to advanced services as of late 1998. This total consisted of at least 350,000 subscribers to cable modem service and at least 25,000 subscribers to DSL.

      

   • The penetration rate for advanced services more than tripled from 0.3% of households at the end of 1998 to 1.0% at the end of 1999 (the penetration rate for high-speed and advanced services was 1.6% at the end of 1999).

      

   • Of the 1.0 million subscribers to advanced services, approximately 875,000 subscribed to cable-based services and approximately 115,000 subscribed to asymmetric DSL, with the remaining balance subscribed to other media. Compared to the totals in the First Report, cable companies increased their subscribership approximately three-fold and local exchange carriers increased their DSL subscribership approximately four-fold.

      

   • Fifty-nine percent (59%) of the zip codes in this country have at least one subscriber to high-speed services, and ninety-one percent (91%) of the country's population lives in those zip codes.

      

3. Is overall deployment reasonable and timely?

    

   • The Commission concludes that the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans is reasonable and timely at this time, although it identified certain groups of consumers that are particularly vulnerable to not receiving advanced services in a timely manner.
   • Those outside of population centers, including rural customers, are particularly vulnerable to not being served by market forces alone (there is at least one subscriber to high-speed service in 57% of our sample of small town zip codes, compared to 19% of the most sparsely-populated zip codes).
   • Survey data indicates that low-income consumers are particularly vulnerable to not having affordable access to high-speed services. Of the zip codes with the lowest household income, only 42% include a high-speed subscriber. On the other hand, data show that, of zip codes with the highest household income, 90% include a high-speed subscriberWhile our data indicates many low-income, inner city neighborhoods are in zip codes with broadband subscribers, we can not tell from our data if infrastructure is evenly available within these zip codes.
   • The survey data, collected by zip code, does not provide the detail necessary to reveal whether subscribers are members of minority groups. Consequently from that data, we cannot draw conclusions about the availability of high-speed services to discrete minority groups. However, looking more broadly at certain statistics about minority households, the Commission concludes they provide a strong indication that minority customers are particularly vulnerable to not having access to advanced services.

There is one thing about the FCC and government in general that everyone in all call centers and the telecom in general should know. They are the problem, not the cure. Government hampers private Industry in it's ability to innovate and expand.  If a call center needs to innovate, it is the government that hampers that innovation. Usually it is under the guise of the general welfare. There is this sense of us all needing powers above us in the telecom industry to tell us all how to act and what to do.

The real result of all of this is rather than protecting the consumer from intrusion, the act has caused lower employment in the answering service industry by creating roadblocks in the industry.

Imagine a Do not call list one foot thick.  Then image us in the answering service having to call people and having to look up their names prior to calling. The task is a daunting one, and one better left to outsourcers in India using the auto dialers if you ask me. But that is not what we do at our company.