Editor’s Note: This item originally ran in Monday’s Web update. However, information regarding CTIA’s position on cell broadcasts was misstated. The corrected version is below.
WASHINGTON-The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association has had to clarify for some of its members what maps must be available for them to be eligible to display the CTIA Consumer Code symbol, said CTIA President Steve Largent.
“We have cuffed some of our carriers. There have been some issues where some of the roaming partners had put on their maps ‘licensed territory’ as opposed to ‘coverage area’ and those are not necessarily the same so what we want to make sure is that in our Consumer Code that we are putting down an accurate map that deals with the actual coverage area not necessarily the licensed area,” said Largent. “We are finding a great deal of compliance. It has a great benefit to the consumer. Our response is that if you are not going to comply with the code then you don’t get to display the symbol. We are not a in a position to levy fines or beat them about the heads and shoulders but we haven’t had to because the carriers have wanted to comply because they see it as a social good.
It was really not a matter of somebody trying to get away with something. It was really just a lack of clarity in the code so we said, ‘let us clarify for you, this is what it means.'”
Largent spoke to RCR Wireless News following a speech he gave on Sunday to the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners.
During his appearance before the state regulators, one critic, Anne Boyle of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, seemed dubious that CTIA would really enforce its Consumer Code of Conduct.
Largent’s appearance at the NARUC convention is an attempt to show state regulators that the wireless industry takes serious its relationship with consumers. He told the NARUC telecommunications and consumer affairs subcommittees that he had met with John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” to discuss how the mobile-phone industry could assist in the Amber Alert program to find missing children.
“I met with John Walsh of ‘America’s Most Wanted.’ We are talking about working on Amber Alerts and the role that the wireless industry could play. When a little 11-year old girl in Florida gets snatched, there is a space for the wireless industry to play to make our communities safer, to safeguard on children and provide peace of mind for parents across the country,” Largent told the state regulators.
Largent’s meeting with Walsh came after the TV show aired a segment supporting the Consensus Plan to solve the public-safety interference problem in the 800 MHz band, he told RCR Wireless News.
CTIA opposes the Consensus Plan, which would shuffle the 800 MHz band to eliminate the current situation where public safety, private wireless, Nextel Communications Inc. and cellular carriers are intermingled. Nextel has said that it would pay $850 million for the necessary retuning of public-safety and private-wireless radios. Nextel said it would deposit $100 million in an escrow account and secure irrevocable lines of credit for the remaining $750 million.
In exchange for giving up spectrum in the 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands and for paying to retune public safety and private wireless, Nextel has asked for 10 megahertz in the 1.9 GHz band.
RCR Wireless News first reported Oct. 27 that FCC staff is contemplating a proposal that would give Nextel no more than 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band.
CTIA and the United Telecom Council favor the Balanced Approach Plan, which calls for timely resolution of current interference at the expense of the interferor, coupled with technical rules, notification and coordination procedures to prevent new interference.
