CTIA, Sprint Say FCC Should Reject Controls on Wireless Rates
CTIA and Sprint Nextel told the FCC it must reject a petition by South Seas Broadcasting, filing as an affected consumer, asking that rate integration be expanded to cover wireless carriers for calls between the U.S. mainland and American Samoa. CTIA said the FCC and courts have established a clear precedent that wireless carriers should not be subject to such wireline rules.
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South Seas filed a petition for rulemaking at the FCC last July. It said “customers were led to believe that the new integrated rates” charged by wireline interexchange carriers would be extended to wireless carriers and were “shocked” to learn that is not the case. The company said its employees, several of whom live in the mainland U.S., have been subject to high long distance rates charged by wireless carriers.
“The Commission and the courts have thoroughly considered this issue,” CTIA said. “They concluded, correctly, that rate integration, a form of rate regulation intended for wireline long distance carriers, is unnecessary and inappropriate for wireless services.” South Seas “presents no new facts” that would justify reopening the issue, CTIA said. “The Commission should deny South Seas’ Petition because rate integration cannot practically be applied to the wireless industry as it exists today, and forcing the industry to restructure itself to fit the outdated mold of a rate-regulated wireline structure would not serve customers.”
Sprint Nextel noted in a filing that the FCC did regulate wireless rates at one point in 1998, but its order doing so was overturned by the Court of the Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the 2000 case GTE v. FCC.
“The imposition of rate regulation on the highly competitive wireless industry will not benefit consumers and will only serve to limit carriers’ ability to offer innovative pricing plans in the future,” Sprint Nextel said. Since the 2000 case, it said, “the Commission has repeatedly recognized that wireless carriers are not subject to any rate integration requirement.”