SouthernLINC Says Hard Rules Needed to Solve Roaming Concerns

The FCC should reject a T-Mobile proposal on roaming that relies on a policy statement rather than detailed regulations, SouthernLINC Wireless said Thurs. SouthernLINC officials said they are grateful national carrier T-Mobile sees potential problems with roaming, but its solution doesn’t go far enough.

“SouthernLINC Wireless agrees with T-Mobile’s general idea that the FCC’s complaint process needs to be strengthened and needs to operate more rapidly when it comes to roaming complaints,” the company said, warning that if implemented the T-Mobile plan “would make it more burdensome for any carrier to bring a roaming dispute before the Commission.”

Clear rules would “minimize the number of complaints,” freeing the FCC to address “situations that are intractable or ambiguous,” SouthernLINC said. Reliance on statements would mean “parties are much more likely to have to resort to the Commission’s complaint process,” the company said.

Michael Rosenthal, dir.-legal & external affairs for SouthernLINC, told us the company asked the FCC to adopt roaming rules 18 months ago out of concern about the iDEN market, but found the problem much broader. “Significantly, T-Mobile’s filing, in which they stress the need to beef up the enforcement and complaint process, seems to lend some support to carriers who believe the FCC needs to take some action to facilitate roaming,” he said: “We agreed with a lot of what they proposed. They mentioned a number of things that should be changed.”

The FCC may be ready to move on roaming rules, Rosenthal said: “Based on informal discussions with staff it seems like they do have a higher level of focus on this.”

Holly Henderson, SouthernLINC mgr.-external affairs, said carriers anxious over roaming are reaching out to Capitol Hill seeking support. “Congress is very interested in agency oversight right now,” she told us: “That has been clear in a number of recent hearings. As long as this proceeding remains unresolved we're optimistic that roaming is an issue that’s going to be of interest to the members.”