An interconnect agreement is a business

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

between telecommunications organizations for the purpose of interconnecting their networks and exchanging telecommunications traffic. Interconnect agreements are found both in the

public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides Communications infrastructure, infrastructure and services for public Telecommunications, telecommunication. The PSTN is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that ...

and the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. In the public switched telephone network, an interconnect agreement invariably involves settlement fees based on call source and

destination Destination may refer to: Music * Destination (group), a disco studio group from New York * ''Destination'' (Eloy album), 1992 * ''Destination'' (FictionJunction Yuuka album), 2005 * ''Destination'' (Ronan Keating album), 2002 * ''Destination'' (E ...

, connection times and duration, when these fees do not cancel out between operators. On the Internet, where the concept of a "

call Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call, a type of betting in poker * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from Lahore, Paki ...

" is generally hard to define, settlement-free

peering In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-and ...

and

Internet transit Internet transit is the service of allowing network traffic to cross or "transit" a computer network, usually used to connect a smaller Internet service provider (ISP) to the larger Internet. Technically, it consists of two bundled services: * The ...

are common forms of interconnection. A contract for interconnection within the Internet is usually called a

peering agreement In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-and ...

. Interconnect agreements are typically complex

contractual agreement A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

s involving payment schemes and schedules, coordination of routing policies, acceptable use policies, traffic balancing requirements, technical standards, coordination of network operations, dispute resolution, etc. Legal and regulatory requirements are often an issue. For example, network operators may be forced by law to interconnect with their competitors. In the United States, the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of t ...

mandated methods of interconnection and the compensation models for doing so.

External links

* * * Telecommunications law Internet architecture Contract law {{telecom-stub