RCA, RTG Say They Have Evidence of Need for FCC Data Roaming Rules
Members of the Rural Cellular Association and the Rural Telecommunications Group have faced “anticompetitive behavior” as they tried to work out data roaming agreements with AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the groups said in an ex parte letter filed Friday at the FCC. The filing comes amid speculation that a data-roaming order is close to completion at the commission, with a vote possible at the Dec. 15 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!
The filing points to problems faced by group members, including Cox, Cellular South and SouthernLINC Wireless, Mosaic Telecom, Copper Valley Wireless and SRT Communications. “Even worse, many member companies reported their struggle to merely receive a response to a request for data roaming from the larger carriers, some reporting delays of up to 18 months,” the groups said. AT&T declined to comment. Verizon had not commented by our deadline.
"It is clear from the numerous examples listed in the ex parte that the inability to secure data roaming agreements is a major road block for rural and regional carriers,” said Steve Berry, RCA president. “The FCC should not allow large dominant carriers to pick and choose their carrier partners solely based on their own coverage gaps. Consumers expect and deserve their devices to work wherever a network is present, not whether or not their local carrier has jumped through hoops to secure data roaming with a national carrier."
RTG General Counsel Carri Bennet said, “It is incredulous that AT&T and Verizon Wireless would claim that there is no need for a data roaming mandate when the evidence weighs so heavily against their claims that market forces will take care of the problem."
Other groups and companies also made filings late last week at the FCC on data roaming. In a meeting last week with commission Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus and Rick Kaplan, an adviser to Chairman Julius Genachowski, T-Mobile representatives asked the FCC to move forward with automatic data roaming rules, an ex parte filing said. “The record in this proceeding is now complete and … the Commission should move forward expeditiously to adopt the rule, consistent with the recommendation in the National Broadband Plan,” T-Mobile said. “We also expressed our strong support for the FCC’s legal authority to adopt a data roaming rule.”
MetroPCS sent the FCC a letter countering AT&T arguments that the FCC lacks legal authority to impose a data roaming requirement. “The Commission should note the significant resources that both AT&T and Verizon Wireless are devoting to their efforts to remain free of any data roaming obligations,” MetroPCS said. “If AT&T and Verizon Wireless truly are offering data roaming on reasonable terms upon request, they have no reason to be concerned about the data roaming obligation MetroPCS and most other carriers are advocating.”
But Mike Wendy, director of MediaFreedom.org, said the FCC should not impose rules. Wireless has thrived in a lightly regulated environment, Wendy said. “Removing core aspects of this competitive dynamic -- which have thus far yielded tremendous facilities-based competition across an array of alternatives -- will lead to less innovation by promoting ‘free-riding,'” he said. “Spectrum bottlenecks should be alleviated. States, too, should help with easier tower citing and other processes. States might also reduce the heavy taxes they place on carriers, which get passed along to consumers. But poaching innovation is not a solution.”