Roaming concerns remain center of VZW/Alltel dissent

A handful of rural operators again raised concerns over future roaming capabilities in filing a petition to deny Verizon Wireless’ attempt to acquire the nation’s No. 5 operator Alltel Communications L.L.C.
In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, more than a half dozed regional carriers and representative organizations laid out arguments to deny the current deal unless conditions are put in place to protect their abilities to sign roaming agreements covering both data services and so-called home market roaming.
The list of signers included Denali Spectrum L.L.C., LCW Wireless L.L.C., NTELOS Inc., Revol Wireless, SpectrumCo L.L.C., Leap Wireless International Inc., Mobi PCS, SouthernLINC Wireless, The Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and the Rural Telecommunications Group Inc.
“The proposed acquisition diminishes the ability of small, regional and new wireless carriers to obtain automatic roaming for data services or within their home markets as they build out their networks,” the filing states. “The availability of these critical roaming services is currently left to private negotiations in the marketplace without any meaningful regulatory backstop.”
The data roaming issue has been an ongoing point of contention for rural carriers that have been unable to offer data services to their customers when those customers roam outside of their home network.
The home market roaming issue is more complex. Regional carriers want the FCC to enforce rules that require other carriers to provide roaming capabilities in markets where a regional carrier controls spectrum but hasn’t yet built out its network. Larger carriers argue that they should not be forced to provide access to their networks to carriers that own spectrum in those markets as that will provide incentive for them to postpone the buildout of their networks.
GSM and CDMA roaming
The filing also notes that Alltel is currently a major roaming partner for both GSM and CDMA carriers, and if Verizon Wireless were to acquire the carrier the combo might reduce roaming opportunities for both technologies. In addition, as Alltel does not control a nationwide network, the carrier relies on reciprocal roaming agreements with smaller operators and thus may be more open to signing agreements.
Verizon Wireless previously tried to appease roaming concerns with a proposal to divest Alltel holdings in 85 markets in 18 states as well as provide regional carriers with the option to maintain the roaming agreement of their choosing with either Verizon Wireless or Alltel. The proposed divestitures represent about 15% of Alltel’s nearly 13 million customer base.
Similar roaming issues were brought forward during Verizon Wireless’ recent acquisition of Rural Cellular Corp. In that instance the FCC required Verizon Wireless to divest holdings in select markets, including its GSM network in the Northeast.