Least Cost Routing
MISSING, DROPPED OR POOR QUALITY CALLS?
Questions & Answers How Least Cost Routing (LCR) is Affecting Rural Phone Service and How You Can Help

THE ISSUE
You might have experienced The Rural Call Completion Problem created by Least Cost Routing (LCR) if you have experienced any of the following:
- Someone tells you they tried to call you but your phone never rang.
- Someone tells you they tried to call you and the phone rang on their end, but didn’t ring on yours.
- A call came through but the quality was poor.
- A call came through but the Caller ID was incorrect.
Union Telephone strives to provide excellent customer service at all times. However, people who live in rural areas all around the country are reporting that calls to them are not getting through or are coming through at very low quality.
THE PROBLEM
The problem starts with the long distance carrier or wireless provider used by the person who makes the call, not your local telephone company. The problem can only be resolved by the long distance carrier or wireless provider of the person who makes the call.
The problems occur when the long distance carriers or wireless providers responsible for transporting calls use a process known as “Least Cost Routing” (LCR). LCR is the practice of passing calls in a “hot potato” fashion in order to minimize the cost associated with connecting to the local telephone company of the called party. Essentially, the call is passed from the long distance carrier or wireless provider to another carrier that will transport the call for the lowest bid. However, this second carrier might pass the call to another carrier searching for the lowest cost. Calls may be passed on in this fashion many times. In some cases the calls become looped in the network and are never completed. In other cases, the calls are delivered via a low quality network which results in poor voice quality.
Rural areas are more affected by this call-completion epidemic because it is more expensive to serve rural areas. Certain long distance carriers and wireless providers do not want to incur the higher costs to transport long distance calls, so they either refuse to transport calls to some rural phone companies’ networks, or they route the calls using LCR to minimize costs.
HELP US HELP YOU FIGHT THE RURAL CALL COMPLETION PROBLEM AND LCR!
We are hopeful that the FCC will act quickly to address these problems and tighten the restrictions against carriers who utilize LCR. As a company we are fighting this problem, but we need your help. Every voice counts, and our state and national legislators as well as the FCC need to know the magnitude of this problem.
Informal Complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Click this link to be taken to an online submission form that will be immediately submitted: FCC Complaint Form. You can also submit your form by calling 888-225-5322. For the FCC to take action on your informal complaint, you must provide:
- The caller’s number
- The called number
- The date the attempted calls or problem calls were made.
If possible, you should identify the long distance carrier or wireless telephone service provider that serves the caller. You can use the text found here for the body of your complaint; feel free to personalize the text to explain the impact that the Rural Call Completion Problem and LCR has had on you in your daily personal and/or professional life.
Complaint to the United States Senators
for the State of Wisconsin
Send a complaint letter to the representative for your area (listed below). For maps of what districts these representatives cover, click on their name. You can use the text found here for the body of your complaint; feel free to personalize the text to explain the impact that the Rural Call Completion Problem and LCR has had on you in your daily personal and/or professional life.
Ron Johnson
219 Washington Ave., Suite 100
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: 920-230-7250
Fax: 920-230-7262
www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public
Tammy Baldwin
310 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 950
Milwaukee, WI 53203
Phone: 414-297-4451
Phone (Wisconsin only): 800-247-5645
www.baldwin.senate.gov
Complaint to the United States House of Representatives
for the State Wisconsin:
Send a complaint letter to the representative for your area (listed below). For maps of what districts these representatives cover, click on their name. You can use the text found here for the body of your complaint; feel free to personalize the text to explain the impact that the Rural Call Completion Problem and LCR has had on you in your daily personal and/or professional life.
Thomas Petri
2390 State Road 44, Suite B
Oshkosh, WI 54904
Phone: 920-231-6333
Fax: 920-231-0464
www.petri.house.gov
Sean Duffy
208 Grand Avenue
Wausau, WI 54403
Phone: 715-298-9344
www.duffy.house.gov