WASHINGTON-The Personal Communi-cations Industry Association and Paging Network Inc. last week submitted proposals to the Federal Communications Commission to take the proposed conditions of the SBC-Ameritech merger, “currently `wireless-free’ and make them helpful not only for wireline competitors, but for wireless competitors as well,” said BethAnn Zuczek, PCIA manager of media relations.
The proposals come as the FCC is in the final stages of developing conditions upon which the transfer of Ameritech Corp.’s licenses to SBC Communications Inc. can be completed. The license transfer is seen as a necessary step in the anticipated merger of the two companies. The FCC does not officially review mergers but does review the transfer of licenses.
The PCIA/PageNet proposals essentially address the same problem: the lack of willingness on SBC’s part to mutually negotiate interconnection agreements with paging operators and personal communications service carriers.
While SBC does have interconnection agreements in place, it does not have mutually negotiated agreements in place, said Angela Giancarlo, PCIA director of federal regulatory affairs. “It is like, `here is an SBC document. Sign it,’ ” said Giancarlo.
PCIA said SBC is the only Baby Bell that has not signed mutually negotiated interconnection agreements. That information, in the form of a chart, was presented to the FCC staff in late July.
Although the two proposals address the same problem, the two entities took different approaches. PCIA’s letter includes a “strike-out” version of the original merger conditions proposed by SBC/Ameritech while PageNet just included additional language.
The specific changes are necessary, said Judith St. Ledger-Roty, an attorney for PageNet in a letter to the FCC, “given SBC’s total unwillingness to comply with the FCC’s rules with respect to paging carriers, and the discriminatory impact of same given that such discrimination does not extend to its affiliated wireless carriers.”
Neither the FCC or SBC would comment specifically on the proposal. SBC said it would respond to all proposed changes to the merger conditions in its official reply, which was due to the FCC after RCR’s deadline. An FCC spokeswoman said the agency was not commenting at the moment, but had received the proposals.
SBC/Ameritech originally agreed to 26 conditions-with attached non-compliance fines of potentially $2 billion-in an attempt to have their merger approved by the FCC. The FCC put these out for comment and additional suggestions.
The conditions were in response to an April 1 letter sent by FCC Chairman William Kennard to SBC Chairman Edward E. Whitacre Jr. and Ameritech Chairman Richard C. Notebaert saying the license transfer probably could not be approved without conditions.
