Small carriers still fighting for roaming access

Cricket wireless. The issue is that Cricket owns licenses in many markets, but hasn’t yet finished building out the network in many. According to the “in-market” exception, bigger carriers have the right to refuse roaming in these markets. The idea is that allowing roaming in those networks would provide a disincentive for the smaller carrier to actually build out the network. Of course, when it comes to a company like Cricket, which purchased a whole ton of licenses and is slowly rolling them out, it’s just not feasible. They’ve been doing their part to build out networks, but that won’t make them an exception to the exception. Last week, Cricket, among others, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights. Representing them was Laurie Itkin, director of government affairs for the carrier. She minced no words in her criticism of larger carriers.

“It is self-serving for these two carriers to argue that Cricket and other small and mid-sized carriers must build facilities reaching every corner of their licensed areas when they themselves still have not built out significant portions of their own networks even though they have had more than 20 years to do so and received their original licenses for free.”

It’s a pretty tough argument. Cricket paid good money for their licenses in auction. While the larger carriers also paid for some of theirs, much was handed out at the beginning. There is no easy answer on how to deal with this. Verizon says they want the exception in place because it allows them to advertise their robust network. That is one of their main competitive advantages, so it’s easy to see why they don’t want to just hand over roaming rights. On the other hand, we’re already at the point where two companies have emerged as having a stranglehold on wireless, so to go at this with a hands-off approach would empower them even further, thus stifling competition. There’s a balance somewhere. Hopefully FCC chairman nominee Julius Genachowski can find it.]]>