Qwest sues AT&T over access fees

DENVER (AP) _ Qwest Communications International Inc. is suing AT&T, claiming the phone giant has illegally avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in fees for using Qwest's network. <br/><br/>The

Thursday, May 6th 2004, 10:53 am

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) _ Qwest Communications International Inc. is suing AT&T, claiming the phone giant has illegally avoided paying tens of millions of dollars in fees for using Qwest's network.

The Denver-based phone company filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Denver. Qwest claims AT&T used the local carrier's network while also routing long-distance calls over its own high-speed Internet system.

SBC Communications Inc. filed a similar lawsuit against AT&T last month, saying it is owed $141 million in back fees.

Qwest spokesman Bill Myers said the company was able to estimate the fees owed it through an internal process, but ``clearly AT&T is the only one that knows how much they owe.''

AT&T spokeswoman Kieren Porter said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.

State and federal laws require long-distance companies such as AT&T to pay local carriers for moving calls between their networks and the long-distance carriers' systems.

Myers said AT&T contended it doesn't need to pay access charges because the traffic was on their Internet backbone for a portion of the route.

The Federal Communications Commission last month rejected AT&T's bid to pay lower fees to local phone companies for completing calls that traveled over the Internet but used local connections.

The FCC, however, said the question of whether AT&T has to pay retroactive fees ``may be addressed on a case-by-case basis'' by the courts.