WASHINGTON-The wireless industry again has told the Federal Communications Commission that mandatory automatic roaming agreements between commercial mobile radio services carriers are unnecessary at this time, due to cooperation between those that are offering such service and to the nature of the business itself.
In comments filed earlier this month in response to a Dec. 5 inquiry into automatic roaming, Nextel Communications Inc., the country’s largest enhanced specialized mobile radio operation, said the commission should rely on the marketplace to determine whether automatic or manual roaming best suits consumers’ needs on a market-by-market basis.
“As the primary provider of CMRS services employing Motorola’s digital iDEN technology, Nextel provides intra-system `roaming’ to its customers on its various systems throughout some 400 cities nationwide,” Nextel wrote. “Nextel provides this roaming free of charge. Such marketplace-driven, competitive services evidence that the marketplace eliminates the need for government mandates.”
Pointing out that Congress was trying to move the telecom industry away from regulation and toward competition, Nextel added that mandated automatic roaming would add rules, would cost money and would “eliminate much-needed flexibility” that CMRS providers need at this point to sign cost-effective roaming contracts with other operators; with new rules, consumers likely would be paying the extra costs.
And if the FCC should decide to rule in favor of automatic roaming, Nextel would like to see it limited to “covered SMRs,” those that are able to compete with wireline, cellular and personal communications services licensees and those that have “in-network switching capability.”
The American Mobile Telecommunications Association told the FCC nothing had changed with its SMR and CMRS constituency since the commission last asked for comments on this issue, and that there was no reason why automatic roaming should be under consideration. “There have been no changes in the SMR marketplace at 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 220 MHz or 450-512 MHz … Even manual roaming continues to be the exception rather than the rule within the SMR industry,” the association wrote.
Nor have AMTA members received requests from cellular or PCS operators for manual or automatic roaming on SMR systems, thus showing that no marketplace demands exist for new FCC rules.
A few automatic roaming agreements have been forged between PCS and cellular operators, commented the Personal Communications Industry Association, showing that “fear of anticompetitive conduct by CMRS carriers remains unrealized. PCIA’s members have successfully been able to negotiate automatic roaming agreements at market rates and with competitive terms and conditions of service for their customers.”
PCIA admits that “the potential for abuse” does exist, but currently there appears to be no need for the FCC to intervene in this issue. It should, however, continue to monitor the industry for any bad-faith negotiations and discrimination.
