WASHINGTON-A majority of the board of directors of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association last week signed a letter to Bill Kennard, Federal Communications Commission chairman, strongly urging the FCC to adopt a wireless industry proposal to allow carriers to institute calling-party-pays service.
CPP is similar to long-distance toll calling where the person placing the call to a wireless subscriber pays for the call rather than the wireless subscriber. CPP is standard in Europe while American carriers traditionally have required the wireless subscriber to pay all charges. CTIA petitioned the FCC to allow for nationwide CPP service, claiming it would increase competition and wireless phone use. There are several trial programs in existence.
The CTIA letter comes less than a month after CTIA President Tom Wheeler told reporters CPP was stalled at the FCC due to a lack of consensus in the industry. “[The industry] hasn’t done the necessary job to speak with one voice,” Wheeler said in November.
The letter acknowledged such claims, saying the purpose of the letter was to “reaffirm the wireless industry’s commitment to CPP as a service option.”
Part of the split within the industry has come over the issue of billing and payment arrangements. CPP will work only if the wireless carrier receives payment from the wireline carrier in question. Many of the wireline carriers have questioned whether this can or should work.
Indeed, some of the regional Bell operating companies-and their wireless subsidiaries-are in favor of, and have actively supported, CPP, while other RBOCs have given CPP a lukewarm reception.
The CTIA board letter says billing would be similar to Interexchange 1+ dial-around services since the calling party will have no pre-existing relationship with the billing carrier. The letter suggests that the carrier instituting CPP would file a tariff with the FCC. These tariffs would be open for public review but would not be subject to FCC approval.
Another CPP debate is whether it is even necessary in today’s climate of nationwide calling plans to allow for the CPP option. The carriers that have instituted these plans are the same carriers that reportedly questioned the need for CPP.
According to the CTIA board,”If, as many believe, CPP will enhance the competitiveness of the [commercial mobile radio services] marketplace, it will be a great benefit to the public. On the other hand, if CPP does not catch on in the United States as it has throughout the rest of the world, there will be no harm from the [FCC’s] action of having allowed CMRS carriers the opportunity to offer this service to their customers”
In other CTIA action, the FCC last week extended the deadline to rule on CTIA’s petition to not enforce wireless number portability rules until the five-year buildout of personal communications services is complete. The FCC set the new deadline for March 16. The FCC said the extension was necessary to allow time to review comments on a numbering plan by the North American Numbering Council that may require number portability.
