WASHINGTON—In the ongoing battle over whether national carriers should have to provide automatic roaming access to smaller operators, SouthernLinc Wireless is pleading its case as an iDEN operator with only one potential national roaming partner: Sprint Nextel Corp.
SouthernLinc, which offers iDEN services in the Southeast, filed a letter in response to earlier comments by Sprint Nextel in regards to roaming, accusing the national carrier of painting an overly rosy picture of the roaming landscape by saying that the price Sprint Nextel “pays and receives for roaming has dropped by approximately 75 percent since 2000.” In that time period, SouthernLINC said, “the price that Sprint Nextel charges SouthernLinc Wireless for wholesale roaming has not declined by even one percent … which means that there have been no reductions in cost that could be passed along to customers. Sprint Nextel also continues to deny SouthernLinc Wireless customers access to roaming for digital dispatch or data services, roaming services that it has long made available to customers of Nextel Partners [Inc.] and foreign iDEN carriers.”
SouthernLinc has a one-way roaming agreement with Sprint Nextel and said that it “has long been offering to enter into a two-way roaming arrangement,” but that the national carrier has refused and insisted upon a one-way roaming agreement.
