Page 52 - Payout Magazine Online Vol. 10.07 - A Look Back In Time with MikeB! The Cam Industry and COVID-19! Articles & More!
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n the months since large portions of the country
                                                                               Iand the world began practicing social distancing
                                                                               in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of
                                                                               Zoom as a videoconferencing solution has been
                                                                               swift and broad.

                                                                                  Across the educational, private and corporate
                                                                               sectors, including among many adult companies,
                                                                               Zoom use and traffic have soared (along with
                                                                               those of Cisco’s WebEx, which has received less
                                                                               attention than Zoom, possibly because its brand
                                                                               name isn’t quite as catchy). For Zoom, the surge
                                                                               in use has been accompanied by certain benefits
                                                                               ñ as well as increasing scrutiny.

                                                                                  On the plus side, from Zoom’s perspective,
                                                                               was an announcement issued by the Federal
                                                                               Communications Commission last Friday, in which
                                                                               the  FCC  announced  it  has  issued  a  “temporary
                                                                               waiver of its access arbitrage rules” to Inteliquent,
                                                                               a telecommunications company that carries
                                                                               traffic for both Zoom and WebEx.

                                                                                  In the announcement, the FCC said that
                                                                               without the waiver, “the massive increase in
                                                                               conference calls made by American consumers
                                                                               using Zoom and WebEx to work and attend
                                                                               classes  from  home  during  the  COVID-19
                                                                               pandemic would likely result in Inteliquent being
                                                                               deemed an ‘access-stimulating’ carrier” under
                                                                               the FCC’s rules. That designation would “trigger
                                                                               financial responsibilities ó namely significant cost
                                                                               increases ó for Inteliquent that would impede
                                                                               its ability to serve these conference calling
                                                                               companies.”

                                                                                  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said that the FCC’s
                                                                               access-stimulating carrier rules were designed to
                                                                               target “companies that have been exploiting our
                                                                               intercarrier compensation system by generating
                                                                               inflated call volumes to pad their bottom lines”
                                                                               and “weren’t intended to ensnare companies that,
                                                                               during a national emergency, are experiencing
                                                                               unprecedented call volumes that would push
                                                                               them out of compliance without a waiver.”

                                                                                  Since Inteliquent doubtlessly would have
                                                                               passed those cost increases along to the two
                                                                               customers primarily responsible for its increased
                                                                               usage, the FCC’s waiver was a welcome
                                                                               development for Zoom and Cisco, as well.

                                                                                  On the increased scrutiny side of the ledger,
                                                                               Zoom  has quickly  found itself under fire from
                                                                               privacy advocates, who are taking the company
                                                                               to task over allegedly falsely claiming their
                                                                               video calls offer “end to end” encryption. Other


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