Rural telephone customers across the nation are experiencing complications while receiving long distance phone calls. The FCC is working with national telephone associations to address the issue. In the meantime, we hope you understand the problem is not caused by Vermont Telephone Company and the solution is out of our hands. Please continue to report problems to VTel so we can inform the FCC. If you would like to report an issue, please complete and submit the form at the bottom of this page or call us at (802) 885-9000. We thank you for being a loyal VTel customer and, as always, look forward to serving you.

Below is more information provided by the National Exchange Carrier Association:

Many rural telephone subscribers have been experiencing a variety of call termination issues. These issues include, but are not limited to:

• The calling party hears ringing but the called party hears nothing;
• The called party hears ringing but hears only dead air when they answer;
• Unusually long call set-up times, sometimes as long as 50 seconds;
• Garbled, one way or otherwise poor quality voice on completed calls;
• Inability to receive Faxes;
• Missing or altered Caller ID.

Scope and Industry Response

• Several national telephone associations have gathered information on the scope of these issues and concluded this is an epidemic affecting the routing of calls to customers in rural areas nationwide.
• The problem occurs on calls originated using a variety of telephone technologies including land-line, wireless, cable, and VoIP.
• The telephone company has no control over these issues – the problems occur before the call ever reaches their network, if the call reaches their network at all.
• The national telephone associations are collecting data to provide to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for further investigation into this problem.

Suggested Consumer Action

• Calling parties should open a trouble ticket with their own originating carrier or service provider when they determine they cannot reach the called party or they experience poor call quality.
• When reporting the problem to the originating carrier or provider, the calling party should include the following details:

o Date and time of call

o The number that was used to place the call

o The number that was called

o Description of the problem (i.e. dead air, ringing with no answer, etc.)

• Consumers attempting to place calls which do not connect or are experiencing call quality issues are encouraged to call the same number using a different service provider or use a “dial-around” option. This often demonstrates that the called number is actually in good working order.

• Consumers who do not receive reliable service or a satisfactory response from their originating carrier or service provider should consider filing a complaint with your PUC and/or the FCC.

• Complaints to the FCC may be addressed to: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm , or 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322)

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