Wireless data roaming agreements with Verizon Wireless are difficult to obtain, are rarely reasonable and rarely include 3G, according to the Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG).
RTG submitted a letter today in response to a recent Verizon Wireless ex parte in which Verizon argues that proponents of data roaming have failed to show that market forces are not working. Verizon is resisting regulation in the data roaming arena, pointing to its 65 wireless roaming partners.
Rural wireless operators have long had an issue with the nationwide cellular operators, claiming that they get locked out of the high-end handset game as the Big 3 sew up distribution rights for themselves of the hottest handsets; meanwhile, a lack of affordable data roaming rates make competing with the big guys near to impossible.
And, in many cases, the situation often means that rural subscribers simply don’t end up with roaming capabilities at all, RTG has argued.
When it comes to Verizon and its 65 roaming partners, “it fails to assert how many of these roaming partners have access to data roaming," a statement from RTG reads. “Verizon also claims that it is more than willing to enter into data roaming agreements with other carriers and purports to provide ‘evidence’ of Verizon’s willingness to enter into and launch data roaming agreements with other domestic wireless carriers. Verizon's letter does nothing to refute the fact that inter-carrier domestic data roaming agreements with Verizon are: difficult to obtain; rarely, if ever, on reasonable terms; and rarely include (3G) EVDO."
Verizon has said that almost one third of its roaming partners either have not requested data roaming or made initial inquiries but then stopped actively seeking data roaming. RTG says that this fact is in “no way evidence of a fully functioning roaming marketplace nor of Verizon’s willingness to enter into data roaming agreements." Verizon, it claims, ignores the many instances where small and rural carriers have stopped pursuing data roaming agreements because “Verizon has said no or priced the services in a manner that effectively means no."
The issue is getting hotter as rollouts of the 4G mobile broadband technology LTE hover on the horizon. Verizon has stated publically that it is considering a licensing arrangement and roaming plans for LTE that will allow rural carriers to play in that game.
“RTG remains apprehensive about the true intent and scope of such an offering," the statement reads. “Rural wireless carriers cannot wait for vague promises by either of the two largest carriers to come to fruition when such carriers continue to take the position that data roaming is not in the public interest."
The letter goes on to note RTG’s positin that Verizon and AT&T present a virtual duopoly in the market: “Verizon glosses over the factual reality that data roaming agreements with AT&T and Verizon are simply unavailable to virtually all competing mobile wireless carriers. RTG encourages the FCC to focus on the prime motivation for this entire proceeding: the right of consumers to be able to roam, whether for voice or data."
