T-Mobile Joins Sprint as Full-Fledged Member of RCA
T-Mobile joined the Rural Cellular Association, they said Tuesday. Sprint Nextel is already an RCA member. With the addition of the two, RCA now has as members virtually all of the nation’s top 100 carriers, except for AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
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RCA members recently changed the group’s bylaws to allow carriers with up to 80 million subscribers to be voting members, and, potentially be on the board, association officials confirmed Tuesday. The old cutoff was 10 million, which excluded Sprint and T-Mobile. Sprint joined RCA as an affiliate member and like T-Mobile is now a full member. Voting is not weighted at RCA so both the heavyweight carriers will have the same vote as other members.
"T-Mobile’s presence is a clear indication we have grown into the competitive carrier association of choice,” said RCA President Steve Berry. “With all the challenges facing the mobile industry, it is more critical than ever for competitive carriers to come together in the advocacy fight and a stronger membership will certainly help ensure our voices are heard at the FCC, on Capitol Hill and at the White House."
"It has just become more and more difficult to seek resolution of policy differences without the involvement of the FCC,” Berry said in an interview. “We're getting very close to a real duopoly, especially with the SpectrumCo issue. We may be getting close to a point of time where we have to have a bifurcation of regulatory principles” with Verizon and AT&T facing a tougher set of regulations. RCA has been a leading opponent, along with Sprint and T-Mobile, of Verizon Wireless’s proposed buy of AWS licenses from SpectrumCo, a cable consortium. RCA is seeking various conditions for the deal to proceed. Last year, RCA fought hard against AT&T’s failed attempt to buy T-Mobile.
RCA members aren’t asking for rate regulation, Berry said. “What we're looking for is an opportunity to compete. That’s really fundamental."
"We share RCA’s goal of promoting a healthy, competitive wireless industry and look forward to working with the other RCA members on advocacy efforts that advance competition and ultimately benefit US wireless consumers,” T-Mobile General Counsel Dave Miller said.
RCA may broach an eventual name change to reflect its new role serving competitive carriers urban and rural, but no decision has been made. For the last six months, in all its announcements and official communications, RCA has adopted a new tagline, calling itself “RCA - The Competitive Carriers Association.”