T-Mobile US continues to press its roaming case, again urging the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with clarifying the “commercially reasonable” standard in its 2011 data roaming rule.
“The FCC recognized the growing disparity in bargaining power in 2011, and ordered that data roaming must occur on ‘commercially reasonable’ terms and conditions,” wrote Kathleen Ham, VP of federal regulatory affairs at T-Mobile US in a blog post this week. “Unfortunately, ‘commercially reasonable’ means different things to different carriers, and to AT&T and Verizon it means charging whatever they want. By imposing unreasonably high roaming rates, T-Mobile and other competitors of the ‘big two’ are forced to restrict their customers’ data usage while roaming.”
T-Mobile US initially filed its petition for clarification with the FCC in May, asking the FCC to take another look at previously approved data roaming rules that it claimed were not meeting the FCC’s guidance. T-Mobile US’ request received support last month from a pair of trade associations representing rural operators.
Both AT&T and Verizon Communications have come out against the request, with AT&T claiming that its smaller rival was asking the FCC to “eviscerate” its previous ruling and upset the “careful balance” the FCC had established in “ensuring that mobile wireless providers can obtain data roaming arrangements on reasonable terms while preserving incentives to invest in broadband networks.”
“There is no justification for granting T-Mobile’s petition — in fact, according to T-Mobile’s own economist, wholesale roaming rates have trended ‘downward strongly’ in recent years, and the average wholesale roaming rates paid by T-Mobile have fallen nearly 70% since 2011 and continue to decline,” explained Joan Marsh, VP of federal regulatory affairs for AT&T.
The topic is sure to be on the minds of many at the upcoming Competitive Carriers Association event.
—The FCC announced it would relax rules for the upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction (Auction 97) that would have required higher upfront payments from companies with a history of defaulting on payments to the government agency tied to previous spectrum auctions.
The “defaulter rule” requires companies that had previously not paid the FCC for past auction results to pay 50% more in upfront payments to participate in spectrum auction proceedings. The rule was instituted in 1998 following a large number of winning bidders in the initial PCS auction (Auction 5) defaulting on their payments to the FCC.
“We conclude that a limited blanket waiver of the former defaulter rules to exclude certain cured defaults or delinquencies for Auction 97 is warranted because the underlying purpose of the upfront payment and former defaulter rules would not be served by their broad application in this auction, and a limited waiver serves the public interest,” the FCC noted in its ruling.
Auction 97 is scheduled to begin Nov. 13, with the FCC recently setting a $10 billion reserve price for the 1,614 licenses up for bid in the 1.7/2.1 GHz space.
—Canadian telecom regulator Industry Canada is looking to reform that country’s telecommunication billing practices tied to consumers receiving paper bills. In a statement last week, Minister of Industry James Moore said the agency planned to introduce legislation that would require telecom companies to provide greater clarity on consumer bills.
“More and more Canadians are finding a new charge appearing on their monthly bills, including their wireless bill,” Moore said. “This fee is charged to those who receive their bill in the mail. Increasingly, many Canadians are being charged this new fee by companies from whom they have been receiving service for decades. We do not believe that Canadians should pay more to receive a paper copy of their telephone or wireless bill.”
—The FCC announced last week that Paula Blizzard was named deputy bureau chief for its enforcement bureau. That bureau is the agency’s largest and tasked with enforcement of the Communications Act and other communications statutes; the FCC’s rules; FCC orders; and the terms and conditions of FCC authorizations.
Blizzard was previously a partner with San Francisco-based law firm Keker & Van Nest and also served as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
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