WASHINGTON-A year-end survey conducted by the Telecommunications Resellers Association revealed that 90 percent of respondents who sought to resell personal communications services were barred from doing so by carriers, and that number rose to 100 percent for those respondents who want to resell specialized mobile radio services.
Calling these results “a resale blockade” in a Feb. 10 letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard and other FCC commissioners, TRA President Ernie Kelly said such carrier practices have “harmed countless small businesses and prevented consumers from enjoying the price competition and innovation such companies inevitably bring to the marketplace.” He continued, “We hope the commission acts decisively, and soon, to dismantle this competitive barrier.”
In 1996, the FCC decided to sunset mandatory wireless resale requirements five years after all broadband PCS licenses were awarded. With all broadband auctions concluded at this point, the clock could start ticking sometime this year, but the FCC has yet to issue a public notice. However, the FCC was careful to state that this policy could be changed if it determined resale still was a necessity.
TRA has urged the FCC not only to overturn its sunset ruling on reconsideration but to “forcefully deny” a forbearance petition filed in May by the Personal Communications Industry Association that deals with exempting PCS carriers from mandatory resale. The FCC has 12 months to act on a forbearance petition and if it doesn’t, the petition automatically is accepted, said TRA’s David Gusky.
Even though the sunset date is some years off, TRA believes it and PCIA’s stance “are contributing directly to the reluctance of new wireless carriers to offer resale products.”
TRA’s survey, conducted in January and February, garnered a 44-percent response rate from member companies. According to the association, the average reseller has been in business 6.5 years; has 77 employees; and enjoyed a six-month revenue flow of $7.37 million from 23,000 subscribers. One hundred percent of respondents resell cellular services, 26.3 percent resell PCS, 76.3 percent resell paging and 18.4 percent resell SMR as agents. Most cellular resellers deal with the following carriers: AirTouch Communications Inc. (45.9 percent), AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (40.5 percent), BellSouth Mobility (32.4 percent), Ameritech Corp. (21.6 percent) and GTE Corp. (16.2 percent). Half of the resellers who handle PCS work with Pacific Bell Mobile Systems.
Respondents cited these reasons for their inability to carry PCS as part of their resale mix:
Reseller not interested in carrying PCS at this time (11.8 percent),
PCS carrier doesn’t offer service for resale (79.4 percent),
PCS carrier would not supply billing tape (26.5 percent),
PCS carrier ignored resale requests (2.9 percent),
PCS resale rate unreasonable (2.9 percent), and
Those resellers who were experiencing difficulty with getting signed SMR agreements attributed the problems to:
SMR not interested in offering resale right now (47.4 percent),
SMR not interested in resale at all (47.4 percent),
Concluding his letter to FCC officials, Kelly reminded them that “the first step is to send a strong signal to the wireless industry of the importance the commission places on resale as a means of entry for small businesses and a safeguard for consumers.”
