WASHINGTON-A cellular provider that wants universal-service subsidies played tug-of-war last week with the incumbent local exchange carriers receiving those funds.
The scene was the CEO Summit on Rural Telecommunications sponsored by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
The summit was moderated by William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the day after the FCC released a sunshine notice that took off the table many of the issues usually surrounding the local competition debate.
“The FCC has scheduled a vote on some items [of potential debate]. You can’t make comments that go to the merits” of those items, Kennard told the participants.
The actors included chief executives from the wireless world-including AT&T Corp.’s Michael Armstrong and Bell Atlantic Corp.’s Ivan Seidenberg, who were there primarily representing their cable and local exchange businesses, the ILEC world, the cable world and even an electric utility, Dan Landguth of Black Hills Corp., South Dakota.
Because many of the local competition issues could not be openly debated with the three Democratic FCC commissioners present, the issue of whether wireless can better offer service to rural America went front and center.
While John Stanton, CEO of Western Wireless, talked about his company’s ventures to provide wireless residential service in rural America-Nevada and North Dakota-Robert T. Miles, president of Sunman Telecommunications Corp., said wireless technologies suffer too much degradation to provide advanced technologies to rural America.
Rural telephone companies are the only ones that will offer advanced technology, commented Miles, who represented the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies (OPASTCO).
Western Wireless and HighSpeed.Com, a local multipoint distribution services licensee for seven states, disagreed with Miles.
Both Western and HighSpeed.Com have business plans that include offering wireless technologies to rural America.
Western’s current data speeds equal those of some of the wireline providers, Stanton said. Western also is upgrading its network to offer even faster speeds, Stanton continued. This upgrade will take place before the expected upgrade that will occur when third-generation wireless goes online.
Stanton also disputed Miles’ degradation comments, saying that in Western’s service area, the company can provide advanced services without degradation. If there would be a service quality problem, the customer will choose to go somewhere else, Stanton noted. “If the customers are not satisfied … our customer will make another choice.”
Miles said the problem is that while wireless is willing to provide service to rural communities, they are still not willing to provide service to the farms outside of town.
This was backed-up by Charles Gowder, general manager of Valley Telephone Cooperative Inc., who said that by the time wireless becomes more economically viable, fiber will be in the ground. Gowder holds two LMDS licenses. He also invested in some wireless communications service spectrum.
“We grabbed some frequency in the WCS auction. When wireless becomes the most [economically viable] I want to be ready. Today, I still believe it is copper … It is the infrastructure costs … The tower height and costs are what really concern us,” Gowder said.
Western’s Stanton complained his company has been unable to get eligible telecommunications carrier status. Western has applied in 13 states for ETC status, and a year later not one state has granted the request.
“We have been fighting tooth and nail … We have spent $1 million in legal fees simply to get the right to enter a state,” he said.
