AT&T and Sprint Tussle About Roaming Rules
Jan 25, 2012, 8:39 AM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Jan 25, 2012, 8:46 AM
Updated: changed wording of first few sentences
AT&T has accused Sprint of taking advantage of changes to the Home Market Rule to avoid building out its network in markets where it owns spectrum and instead roam on the networks of its competitors. The Home Market Rule was put in place to enable rural carriers to compete on a more level playing field. The rule says, as explained by AT&T, "If a carrier owned spectrum, it was good public policy to require them to build out that spectrum and therefore they should not be able to demand roaming from other carriers in those home markets." The FCC abolished the rule in 2010. Sprint recently announced that it will rely on roaming agreements to cover large portions of Kansas and Oklahoma rather than invest money building its own network in those regions, even though it owns spectrum there. Sprint responded to AT&T, claiming that its Network Vision program has doubled the amount of investment it is making in its network. In an email, Sprint spokesperson John Taylor said, "It's disappointing, but not surprising, that AT&T wants to challenge a consumer's right to access email, the Internet and other mobile broadband services wherever they may travel in the U.S. Along with Verizon Wireless, AT&T is the only other wireless carrier in America which opposes the FCC's pro-consumer data roaming decision from last year." The rules are going to be reviewed by the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals later this year.
more info at AT&T (via The Verge) »
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