WASHINGTON(Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission hasput on hold a plan to revise the rules governing the right of smallwireless phone carriers to "roam" on the networks of larger rivals.
At issue is whether carriers should be allowed to roam in areas where they own airwaves, but have not built networks.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin had proposed guaranteeing that carrierswho owned unused spectrum could continue roaming for four years beforethey lost roaming rights.
But he withdrew the proposal before a meeting of the FCC’s fivecommissioners on Friday because they had not reached an agreement onthe issue.
"At this point, I’m not sure I see a consensus for how thecommission ends up addressing it," Martin said in a telephone interviewwith Reuters.
The move also comes after small carriers such as Leap WirelessInternational Inc asked the FCC to ban Verizon Wireless’ plan to buyAlltel unless rules are put in place to make sure consumers are notleft without roaming in some areas.
Verizon, which hopes to close the Alltel deal by year-end, declinedcomment beyond documents it filed recently with the FCC promising tomaintain Alltel’s roaming agreements.
The FCC review of the rules stems from an order it adopted last yearthat reaffirmed the rights of smaller carriers to roam on the networksof bigger wireless companies such as AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless,a venture of Verizon Communications Inc Vodafone Group Plc.
Martin said the rules were designed to encourage companies to makeuse of the airwaves they own, rather than just sitting on them androaming on the networks of other companies.
He said he proposed the revisions in response to concerns by somesmaller wireless carriers that there were areas where they had acquiredspectrum, but did not have access to it. These carriers argued theyshould be able to maintain their right to roam in those areas.
Martin said carriers could use the four-year grace period beforetheir roaming rights expired to build out their own networks or to givethe spectrum back to the government and continue roaming.
But other commissioners had reservations about some of theprovisions. Some have proposed giving roaming carriers a longerphase-in period and others said they needed more time to study theissue.
Leap’s Director of Government Affairs, Laurie Itkin, said in ane-mailed statement she expected the commissioners to reach a consensuson roaming rules before deciding on the Verizon/Alltel deal.
AT&T was not immediately available for comment.
(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York)
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