The New York Times has an article explaining "traffic pumping" here. This practice largely centers around Iowa Independent phone companies who are partnering with phone service companies like chat lines and free conferencing companies. AT&T has been complaining to the FCC about it for a while Many of these companies are in litigation to get paid by the IXC's. What it really comes down to is that the "new" FCC has to take a stand on Inter-Carrier Compensation soon. It has been "studying" the issue for years. It's a political hot potato. Bill-and-keep is the system most pundits see as the quick fix. I'm sure its deeper than that.
UPDATE: NPR has a couple of articles about Google Voice and Traffic Pumping. One here about the 100 numbers that GV is blocking and the other here about the blocking. BTW, GV has over 1M users now.
UPDATE: NPR has a couple of articles about Google Voice and Traffic Pumping. One here about the 100 numbers that GV is blocking and the other here about the blocking. BTW, GV has over 1M users now.
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