The $10 billion fight over phone lines rages on

The NoChokePoints Coalition is redelivering a message to the Federal Communications Commission: don't wait another year to change the rules governing access to telephone lines.

The coalition -- which includes Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, universities, major banks and corporations -- been asking the FCC for years to lower "special access" charges, or the fees smaller phone companies and cell phone carriers to pay to lease access on the major backbone networks operated by AT&T, Verizon and Qwest. The coalition's members say they pay $10 billion a year--or $27 million a day--in overcharges to lease access on the major phone companies' networks. And they say they have to pass those costs onto their customers.