Data Must Be Part of FCC Automatic Roaming Requirements, SouthernLINC Says
The FCC should adjust any pending automatic roaming rules to go beyond voice to include data, said SouthernLINC Wireless. The carrier, a vigorous advocate of wider roaming responsibilities, filed a paper at the FCC this week based on arguments it made in May meetings with Wireless Bureau staffers.
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!
“One of the issues that had been raised during the course of the comments on roaming was data roaming,” Holly Henderson, an attorney with SouthernLINC, said Tuesday. “Data is huge. We're finally starting to get there where data is becoming an important segment of the wireless market. We felt it was important to go into the commission and specifically point to data roaming as something the commission will hopefully not overlook in crafting final rules for automatic roaming.”
The paper argues that the FCC has sound legal footing for requiring automatic data roaming and that “compelling public interest reasons” exist for doing so, Henderson said. “Voice is still important, people still dial the cellphone number and press the send key,” she said. “But people communicate via e-mail and text messaging and all these other mediums.”
“There is a clear and compelling public interest need for commission action that will provide full and fair access to all mobile wireless services, including voice and data, for all Americans,” SouthernLINC said “The commission possesses ample legal authority under Title II of the Communications Act to adopt a clear, coherent, and ‘future- proof’ roaming policy that will make these services available to all U.S. consumers at reasonable rates and under reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions.”
Data are critical to public safety, the paper said. “In emergency situations when voice networks may not be available due to traffic congestion or other factors, wireless data services offer a critical, even life-saving, alternative means of communication,” SouthernLINC said. “As noted by the Katrina Panel established by the commission in 2006, ’text messaging was used successfully during the crisis and appeared to offer communications when the voice networks became overloaded with traffic. Without access to roaming, people caught in this type of emergency would be cut off from communications.” Data will matter more in this regard as wireless carriers send emergency alert service messages to subscribers, the report said. “People should not be deliberately excluded from receiving potentially life-saving information simply because they are relying on roaming service when a disaster or other emergency strikes,” it said.
The handicapped also often rely on data more than others to communicate, the report said. “The Commission has long placed the utmost importance on the ability of persons with disabilities to access and utilize communications,” said SouthernLINC. “The commission should ensure that a lack of roaming for data services does not become another barrier to the ability of persons with disabilities to communicate.”
The FCC has been slow to impose automatic roaming rules like those in Europe. But at the CTIA meeting in March, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he is “sympathetic” to smaller companies’ complaints about the need for automatic roaming (CD March 28 p6). Henderson said she remains optimistic that the commission will proceed on the long-stalled roaming effort. “We're also going to continue to press for them to act,” she said.