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FCC Hoping to Toss Verizon's Data Roaming Challenge

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FCC=Cosumer Advocacy

Slammer

Mar 9, 2012, 10:23 AM
I'm hearing a lot of negativity from people in this forum expressing their dissatisfaction of the FCC's "intervention" with big business inside the wirless industry. One can only presume that most of these people are paid individuals associated with carriers.

Since I'm not one of these people, I would like to propose that each of you extract yourselves from the element for a moment and place yourselves in another industry. Let's say Gas and Electric. Imagine the repercussions we would endure if this industry were not regulated. We would stand little chance of voicing our concerns.

Now, if we take notice of the FCC's goal to ensure that all consumers have access to mobile broadband, we can easily assess that their reasoning is simple an...
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dlmjr

Mar 9, 2012, 12:06 PM
Slammer said:
I'm hearing a lot of negativity from people in this forum expressing their dissatisfaction of the FCC's "intervention" with big business inside the wirless industry. One can only presume that most of these people are paid individuals associated with carriers.

Since I'm not one of these people, I would like to propose that each of you extract yourselves from the element for a moment and place yourselves in another industry. Let's say Gas and Electric. Imagine the repercussions we would endure if this industry were not regulated. We would stand little chance of voicing our concerns..


Utilities are granted, in most instances, a regional monopoly, and in return the agree to regulation.
There ...
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Slammer

Mar 9, 2012, 8:00 PM
----" Utilities are granted, in most instances, a regional monopoly, and in return the agree to regulation. There is no monopoly here, therefore the analogy fails."----

My analogy does not fail. I look at long term effects. Your own statement provides the concern that I am trying to convey. We are only two carriers away from being tossed a doupoly. In many cases of economics, a duopoly is more dangerous than a monopoly. VZW is trying to quell competition by smothering the regional carriers. It doesn't take a scientist to equate the sum. Regional carriers simply do not have the financial or network resources to expand on extra native coverage. They are willing to pay forward cash to the larger in return of having access to nationwide ser...
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SublimeDavid

Mar 10, 2012, 12:52 PM
John, your responses are very well thought out. I agree with you 100%
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furyx639

Mar 10, 2012, 1:06 PM
This is exactly what I was trying to say, you just convey it much better than I could.
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JBlaze74

Mar 9, 2012, 12:18 PM
Let's be clear. Nobody on here is talking about no regulation. The concern of most of us is not so much regulation as abuse of power. There needs to be guarantees put into place that the FCC is not the be all and end all decision maker. Right now there really isn't. The FCC is an appointed board that does not have to answer to the public directly. Because of that, there does need to be some oversight regardign there decisions. personally, I don't disagree with the roaming agreements. I don't disagree with obstructing, or at least slowing down VZW's spectrum rampage. But I do disagree with any government body having to much authority in the private sector. Events of the last several years have made me very nervous. I will honestly ...
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Versed

Mar 9, 2012, 1:25 PM
I agree some regulations is needed, but! How I see this is, small carrier doesn't wish to bid for the spectrum in their coverage areas, they don't want to spend the money. And even if they do have it, they don't wish to toss up the towers or upgrade the one's they have to handle new data technology. Or even go into some agreement with the bigger carriers to provide and maintain it in their areas. What I do see, is these same carriers want to call the shots, we're small so we want cut rate roaming at what we consider a fair price, we don't want to build out or maintain, we want to piggy back off VZW's or AT&T's back, and we want the FCC to tell them to do it.
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JBlaze74

Mar 9, 2012, 1:31 PM
I would agree with that, and in the cases of small companies owning spectrum and not showing a track record of bulding out, there should be consequences. At the same time, we cannot allow spectrum hoarders to cause issues in the marketplace (please note, I'm not pointing out an individual company, lol) or eventually, the smaller companies that DO want to build out and maintain their systems will be locked out in the cold. It's a very fine line. i would like to see a balance struck, possibly oversight of the FCC, or a separate appellate body to the FCC to keep the balance. I hate the idea of more government bureacracy, but not sure where the solution lies at this point.
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dlmjr

Mar 9, 2012, 4:37 PM
JBlaze74 said:
I would agree with that, and in the cases of small companies owning spectrum and not showing a track record of bulding out, there should be consequences. At the same time, we cannot allow spectrum hoarders to cause issues in the marketplace (please note, I'm not pointing out an individual company, lol) or eventually, the smaller companies that DO want to build out and maintain their systems will be locked out in the cold. It's a very fine line. i would like to see a balance struck, possibly oversight of the FCC, or a separate appellate body to the FCC to keep the balance. I hate the idea of more government bureacracy, but not sure where the solution lies at this point.


This isn't about s...
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JBlaze74

Mar 9, 2012, 4:47 PM
Point taken. I was using spectrum hoarding as an example, not as the central issue. My concern is the power the FCC has, and may have going forward without oversight.
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mycool

Mar 9, 2012, 5:41 PM
JBlaze74 said:
i would like to see a balance struck, possibly oversight of the FCC, or a separate appellate body to the FCC to keep the balance.


I don't understand how people do not know that this ALREADY exists!

"Congressional oversight refers to oversight by the United States Congress of the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_oversight »
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JBlaze74

Mar 9, 2012, 5:46 PM
Can I get a show of hands of how many people actually still trust the US Congress?
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Slammer

Mar 9, 2012, 7:27 PM
Who do you trust more? I've been a wireless subscriber for over 24 years. Observation of the two largest carriers running amoke as they regain power and control, seems to preclude that the FCC is needed more than ever to govern and curb the possibilities of a duopoly. Whether many see this as likely or not, are you willing to take that chance? I'm not.

John B.
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JBlaze74

Mar 9, 2012, 7:39 PM
Again, not arguing against regulation. Just want to make sure that there is a balance in place. There IS such a thing as too much regulation. I certainly don't want to see a duopoly in place, and if it ever does happen, I lived without a cellphone for over 30 years. I bet I can do it again.
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Slammer

Mar 9, 2012, 8:10 PM
----" There IS such a thing as too much regulation."---

Yes. But so far in this industry, the private sector of businesses( the carriers) have evaded serious mandated regulations. It has been proven that as some carriers(unnamed) have tried to leverage any unfair practices that could greatly degrade the consumer balance, the mere thought of an iron fist from the FCC, has caused the carriers to back off. This proves that the agency works when done correctly.

John B.
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mycool

Mar 10, 2012, 12:32 AM
JBlaze74 said:
Can I get a show of hands of how many people actually still trust the US Congress?


If you don't like how things are going either get in contact with your congressional leaders, vote them out, or if you truly feel there are no good choices run for office yourself! Complaining is OK if you do something about it...
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CellStudent

Mar 9, 2012, 4:49 PM
Too many commentators here are ignoring the economics of the situation.

For example, the cost of building a wireless network to support 10,000 subscribers is only slightly more than the the cost of building out a wireless network to service ONE customer. The coverage and capacity capacity needed to service the extra 9,999 customers is basically included in the cost of the build-out to serve one subscriber. The biggest difference is that the electricity bill for keeping the towers up and running is a little higher as you add more customers.

But... the (extremely high) cost of building the towers and putting the communications control systems in place is basically flat, regardless of the number of subscribers on the syste...
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