Moving to ensure roaming ease

New PCS carriers have enough going against them without having their customers blocked from roaming in other markets. The Federal Communications Commission took steps this summer to ensure that this will not happen. The issue has been coming to the forefront as the new carriers have begun to seek roaming agreements with other established carriers.

The agency adopted a new rule to ensure that customers of one operator-whether it is a cellular, PCS or specialized mobile radio provider-will always be able to register to make and receive calls on a host system in another area.

Users typically can do this manually by supplying a host operator with a valid credit card number, but home location register technology is increasingly helping to streamline and automate this process.

The new rule currently covers only manual registration, but the FCC has issued a further notice of proposed rulemaking requesting comment on the potential for automatic registration to be included in the rule.

The commission established the rule after finding that some incumbent cellular carriers "may have the ability and incentive to discriminate against smaller and newer competitors in the terms and conditions of automatic roaming agreements," the order states.

There has been little public complaint about such unfair behavior by cellular carriers to date, but the FCC feared that competition may be a tempting factor.

Other changes include increases in pre-auction license deposits and post-auction down payments. Bidders must pay a deposit of 6¢ per pop as a deposit for the upcoming auction, as opposed to about 4¢ per pop for past auctions. Also, down payments on licenses have been increased from 10% to 20% of the winning bid.

These changes reflect the FCC's desire to prevent defaults on licenses and to encourage more sincere bidding overall, according to a spokeswoman for the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.