Most Commenters Say FCC Should Require Data Roaming
The Rural Cellular Association (RCA), the Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG), T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and many small and midsized carriers said the FCC should use its authority under Title III of the Communications Act to impose a data roaming obligation on carriers like the one for voice approved in 2007. But AT&T and Verizon Wireless countered that requiring roaming for data would violate the Communications Act. The commission sought comment on data roaming when it dropped the in-market exception for voice roaming (CD April 22 p4).
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!
"Data roaming is the fundamental building block for bringing ubiquitous broadband to rural America,” the RCA said. “Data roaming will serve the public interest by facilitating and promoting investment in advanced broadband networks in rural and small regional service areas, by enhancing consumer and public safety access to advanced broadband services, by promoting competition, and by increasing rural and small regional carrier customer satisfaction through the provision of advanced data services while traveling or working outside their home service areas.”
"By extending automatic roaming requirements to data services, the Commission will: (1) encourage investment in mobile broadband infrastructure; (2) reduce the barriers to entry facing new market participants in rural areas; (3) increase rural mobile broadband coverage, rural mobile data services and the overall level of marketplace competition in rural areas; and (4) counteract the loss of competition perpetuated by years of industry consolidation,” the RTG said. “As the mobile communications industry shifts from its voice-centric origin to its datacentric future, so too must roaming regulations. By extending automatic roaming obligations to data services, the Commission will be able to level the playing field between small and rural mobile operators on one side and the largest of the nationwide carriers on the other."
AT&T and Verizon Wireless countered in separate filings that data roaming requirements aren’t necessary and would violate Section 332 of the Communications Act, which provides that non-CMRS “private mobile” services won’t be treated as a common-carrier service. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker raised jurisdictional issues in April and insisted that questions on FCC authority be included in the rulemaking notice.
"The Notice overlooks Section 332 altogether,” AT&T said. “Instead, it recites a litany of Title I, II, and III provisions and asks whether they might support common carriage obligations. The short answer is that none of the listed provisions is relevant. No matter how broadly one might construe them as grants of general authority to impose regulation of the type contemplated here, none of them could displace the specific statutory prohibition on such regulation that Congress provided in Section 332(c) with respect to private mobile services like data roaming."
"The Commission has consistently followed the principle that wireless regulation should be used sparingly and only to correct, in the narrowest effective way, a demonstrated problem that adversely impacts customers,” Verizon Wireless said. “In the case of data roaming, there is no demonstrated problem for the Commission to correct.” AT&T said the question isn’t whether there will be data roaming, which is widely available: “Rather the issue is whether the Commission will now saddle these commercial arrangements with common carrier regulation and all of the attendant costs and restraints.”
T-Mobile said data roaming should be mandated because of increased industry consolidation. “Absent Commission oversight, data roaming will not be provided at reasonable rates, terms, and conditions or may be withheld altogether, diminishing competition at the retail level and harming consumers,” the carrier said. MetroPCS said “a finding that the Commission has the authority to regulate wireless data roaming as a Title II common carrier service is well within existing precedent and does not require that the Commission adopt any novel or new legal theories. The Commission can regulate wireless data roaming under Title II without overturning or reinterpreting any existing law and precedent and without having to resort to the ‘Third Way.'"
"The National Broadband Plan recognized that access to automatic roaming for mobile data services is essential for competitive entry and network deployment,” said SouthernLINC Wireless. “Mobile data services are highly valued -- and relied on -- by consumers, and consumers expect seamless connectivity and ubiquitous access to these services when traveling outside their home service area."
Free Press also urged the FCC to approve a data roaming mandate. “For years, Free Press has been arguing that the wireless market is broken,” said Policy Counsel Chris Riley. “Fixing it will require a lot of hard work and courage from the Commission. The proposed data roaming rules will help smaller wireless companies offer affordable nationwide mobile broadband services, increasing competition and ultimately lowering prices for all wireless consumers. Data roaming is an essential component of reform for the mobile broadband market.”