A strange twist in the AT&T/NASCAR case

This is a pretty technical article, so we’re going to wade through it for you and give you the gist. If you’re the techie type, we always link to the source at the bottom, so feel free to have at it and give us your interpretation in the comments. The block quote will have to do the talking on this one. We’d write it in our own words, but we think it’s perfectly conveyed this way:

Not long after AT&T received approval for its merger with BellSouth, it informed competing wireless operators of its new policy regarding wireless to wireless interconnections. Sprint-Nextel complained to the FCC in a recent CMRS market competition report that the new policy is anticompetitive. The policy states that any new interconnections between Sprint Nextel and AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular, will now have to be connected through AT&T’s ILEC tandem. Under the new terms, Sprint Nextel will now have to pay transit fees to send its wireless traffic to Cingular subscribers.

Furthermore, Sprint feels that in the coming years, all of its calls will have to be routed through AT&T tandems, meaning they have to pay a fee for each call. And when Sprint has to pay a fee, Sprint’s customers have to pay a fee. We don’t like that very much at all. We like it even less, because it won’t be much of an expense to all to AT&T Mobility. Even if AT&T ILEC (owners of the tandems) charge AT&T Mobility, it’s just an accounting expense to transfer funds from one account to another. It’s like taking a $20 out of one pair of jeans and putting it in the pair you’ll wear tomorrow. And it reeks of monopoly (wow, the words “AT&T” and “monopoly” in the same sentence — who would have ever thought it?). Sprint doesn’t think this issue is going to bed anytime soon. Because there is no regulation on the rates for using these tandems, AT&T could demand an unreasonable fee for usage. Refusal by Sprint could then cause AT&T to not allow calls to go through, which would severely hurt Sprint’s market. Further, if this does work, Sprint sees the other major wireless carrier, Verizon, following suit. And that’s just bad news for everyone. “This is a growing problem, and we’ve seen this everyday in the special access market in particular,” says Anna Gomez, vice president for Sprint Nextel’s Government Affairs group. “This is yet another notch in their belt, and it is harming competition,” Gomez says. [Billing World and OSS Today Magazine]]]>