T-MOBILE TIES BACKHAUL COMPLAINTS TO FCC'S UNE REVIEW
T-Mobile is asking the FCC to use its order on pending interim UNE rules as a lever to reopen the issue of rates for wireless backhaul, an issue first raised in 2001 but never acted on. CLECs as well are starting to look more closely at the issue, which is a panel topic at CompTel’s fall meeting.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
T-Mobile asked FCC to find that connections between wireless facilities are “network elements” and conduct an impairment analysis. T-Mobile said FCC should look at connections between mobile switching centers (MSCs) and ILEC service wire centers (SWCs), between SWCs and the ILEC central offices (COs), and between COs and base stations. “There are virtually no alternatives for the critical CO-to- base-station connections and CMRS providers cannot offer service without these vital connections,” T-Mobile said.
Harold Salters, a lobbyist for T-Mobile, told us the FCC should treat connections used by wireless carriers as UNEs, subject to cost-based rates, to promote competition. Salters said that at the same time wireless carriers are competing with ILECs for customers, they have to pay them to use their facilities for backhaul. “This component from the cell site to the MSC is absolutely critical to how we offer a facilities-based network,” Salters said: “The FCC has recognized that in order to have true facilities-based competition you need to have UNEs. In order to have competition that the FCC wants we need access to that critical, essential element at a cost-based rate.”
T-Mobile has a legitimate complaint about the cost of buying loops from ILECs to handle wireless traffic, Nicholas Lenoci, national vp-sales & mktg. at CLEC Looking Glass Networks, said Wed. Lenoci said FCC rates can be 30-40% higher than UNE rates. Lenoci cited an example from the Washington area: “T-Mobile needs to have facilities to suburban Ashburn, Va., but no competitors have built to Ashburn. They don’t have many choices. If that UNE price isn’t there they're stuck buying ILEC facilities.”
In 2001, T-Mobile predecessor VoiceStream and AT&T Wireless filed at the FCC seeking a declaratory order that the ILECs must provide CMRS providers nondiscriminatory access to UNEs for interoffice transport.