BEST PRACTICES ‘BEST WAY’ TO SOLVE WIRELESS PROBLEMS, CTIA TOLD

Part of the key to the effort also is for carriers “to get to the point where they are fixing some of the problems states are seeing in service quality,” Snowden said: “The more that can be done in that area, the better.”

Wireless carriers have been working with state regulators, the FCC and consumer groups on a “best business practices” code that would provide consumer information on service issues such as coverage and rates that could be compared across operators (CD March 5 p6). House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) earlier this week at the CTIA show urged carriers to move forward on such voluntary guidelines, as well (CD March 18 p1). All issues related to service quality, which increasingly has become an issue for state PUCs that vet consumer complaints in that field, are on the table as part of the process, Snowden told reporters after the panel discussion. The challenge is that many state PUCs are receiving complaints from consumers about wireless quality and are viewing them in the context of an industry that has grown quickly, he said. “I agree we should look at it but not necessarily regulate it,” he said. “I think it’s important that we come up with best practices that solve some of the problems.”

“The states want to fix something. And if we can fix it, or the industry can fix it, that’s the best result,” Snowden said. “I get nervous when states say they want to fix something,” said Robert Pepper, the FCC’s chief of policy development. The state deregulatory action of Sec. 332 meant that “prices went down and not up.” There still are “tough consumer complaint issues” that aren’t necessary connected to pricing trends, he said. The National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates recently joined the FCC effort in that area, Snowden said.

Voluntary guidelines potentially are “sellable to the states,” particularly if carriers focus on some of the underlying problems that consumers are bringing to the attention of PUCs, Snowden said. “It is an alarming trend,” he said, noting that the FCC’s message to NARUC and others had been to continue to work on that dialog. The effort is part of a larger FCC focus on playing a facilitator role in such issues that involve states and other stakeholders, officials said. -- Mary Greczyn

CTIA Wireless 2003 Notebook…

Much of the tone of carrier and equipment-maker top brass at the 3-day CTIA show here has been bullish on the sector’s financial prospects this year, despite the sustained economic beating that has afflicted the industry and other telecom providers. CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler released figures from the group’s semiannual wireless industry survey that showed U.S. subscribers had increased 10% to 141 million at the end of 2002 from a year earlier. He told the opening session that total wireless min. of use increased 36% last year. Tim Donahue, CTIA chmn. and Nextel CEO, said that in the last 6 months of 2002, “individual subscribers’ usage grew faster than in the first 6 months.” Wheeler said the industry was on track for more than $1 billion data revenue this year. Donahue said that “for the last 6 months of 2002, the wireless industry did almost half a billion dollars in nonvoice data revenue” and that year-over-year figures starting in Dec. 2001 showed a 33% jump in data revenue. CTIA’s industry survey showed that wireless carriers’ service revenue reached $39.8 billion in the 2nd half of 2002, up from $34.4 billion a year ago and total billable min. in 2002 were up 35% to $619 billion.

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A panel of FCC 8th floor wireless advisers at the show said the role of wireless in the Commission’s universal service regime was expected to be a challenge over the next year, with several emphasizing the need to gather more information. “We've got real challenges,” said Paul Margie, aide to Comr. Copps. “I think we're going to be talking more and more about universal service over the next year. We've got to figure out a way to solve some of our problems.” Wireless is “part of the solution to the underlying goals of universal service, not part of the problem,” he said. Margie said the FCC needed to understand better how a wireless carrier helped serve rural America under the universal service regime, how it affected the size of the fund and the way in which it was distributed. Barry Ohlson, aide to Comr. Adelstein, said his boss had been citing the importance of recognizing the impact on the size of the fund, where it is going and recognizing that the “Act does have different standards for ETC [eligible telecom carrier] requests in rural areas.” Ohlson said Adelstein looked forward to addressing some of those questions in the Federal-State Joint Board’s review. He stressed the importance of weighing the public interests in terms of the benefits that accrued as a result of any carrier’s coming into the fund. Sam Feder, adviser to Comr. Martin, said examining the effect of multiple carriers on the fund was important. “You can’t keep funding additional universal service participants and continue to pay incumbents the same amount of money and keep the fund growing,” he said, and the dynamics of the fund would be altered if any of those variables changed over time. Wireless providers can bring value to the universal service system but separate issues need to be examined discreetly, said Bryan Tramont, aide to Chmn. Powell. “Whether or not we support a second line is a policy call and I think we should make that call,” he said. “Whether or not we support advanced services is another policy call. They are separate things.”