WASHINGTON—A group of rural and regional wireless carriers again urged the Federal Communications Commission to adopt automatic-roaming rules they believe are necessary for competition.
“Many carriers, particularly regional and rural carriers are concerned that competitive market forces are no longer sufficient to ensure that they will be able to provide their customers with reasonable, affordable access to automatic-roaming services,” according to the letter sent to the agency.
Automatic roaming refers to commercial arrangements between carriers, while manual roaming requires the individual subscriber to make the payment arrangements.
The FCC began examining the issue in 2000. The commission has initiated action on roaming rules twice, only to leave them unfinished both times. Last year it started its third proceeding. Because mergers have reduced the number of nationwide wireless carriers from six to four, the agency is re-examining the market for roaming services. Indeed, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said he was willing to let Sprint Corp.’s acquisition last year of Nextel Communications Inc. go forward after he was assured there would be a wider and renewed examination of the roaming issue.
In comments filed last year, T-Mobile USA Inc., the smallest of the four nationwide carriers, said regulations are not necessary.
“The FCC should reject suggestions that it impose an automatic-roaming requirement or some form of non-discrimination requirement regarding roaming arrangements. Regulation in this case is unnecessary because regulatory intervention into roaming relationships would harm, not benefit consumers. Similarly, the commission should not regulate the terms or conditions of roaming agreements,” said Thomas Sugrue, T-Mobile USA’s vice president of government affairs.
Similarly, Cingular Wireless L.L.C., the nation’s largest carrier, said any perceived discrimination is due to the advance of technology, not to intentional actions.
“Smaller carriers are losing roaming traffic for a number of reasons that have no relationship to roaming agreements between large carriers. For example, when Cingular began deploying GSM technology, many small carriers did not. Thus, roaming traffic decreased,” said David Richards, an attorney at Cingular.
Rural and regional carriers want the FCC to enact automatic-roaming rules that “will ensure access to roaming services for consumers no matter where they may travel.”
Specifically, the smaller carriers have suggested a list of CMRS roaming principles:
- Carriers must provide in-bound automatic roaming to any requesting carrier with a technologically compatible air interface;
- All services that a carrier is offering must be offered to a requesting carrier;
- Carriers must provide in-bound automatic roaming services under rates, terms and conditions that are just, reasonable and non-discriminatory; and
- The FCC should adopt the presumption that a just and reasonable wholesale rate for roaming cannot be higher than the carrier’s best retail rate or average rate per minute.
