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AT&T has strongly voiced its opinion lately in a move made by Sprint in their Oklahoma and Kansas City markets to shut down some of its own home services in favor of roaming agreements with other CDMA carriers. AT&T specifically points to two policy changes made by the FCC which allowed Sprint to make the move. The first policy pushes the end of the Home Market Rule, which prohibits a carrier to establish any roaming agreements in a market where it owns its own spectrum. The other was pushed last year when the organization required for carriers to offer high-speed data roaming on top of traditional voice services. AT&T Senior VP, Bob Quin says:
“Sprint can now use other folks’ networks rather than pony up its own investment dollars. Nice work if you can get it.”
And Sprint certainly had no shortage of words to say regarding the matter:
It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that AT&T wants to challenge a consumer’s right to access email, the Internet and other mobile broadband services wherever they may travel in the U.S. Along with Verizon Wireless, AT&T is the only other wireless carrier in America which opposes the FCC’s pro-consumer data roaming decision from last year.
The facts are that Sprint, as part of its Network Vision program, doubled its 2011 capital investment over 2010 to make tens of thousands of capacity upgrades, resulting in a better wireless experience for its customers. With these network investments, Sprint continues to offer consumers a better value than AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
So, while Sprint’s argument clearly counters AT&T’s notion that the company is neglecting its own investments and interests, it still dodges another aspect. For starters, the FCC policy changes were intended for “rural carriers”, which Sprint is certainly not even though it is technically a member of the Rural Cellular Association (RCA). We’re supposed to see the matter go before the Washington DC Circuit Court of Appeals some time later this year and AT&T is “hopeful” that the court will “reject the FCC’s market intervention” in favor of their outlook. We’ll certainly see how this pans out as we follow the matter closely. So, stay tuned to Talk Android and feel free to let us know what you think of the matter in the comments below.
[via AT&T by The Verge]
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Categorized as Android Carriers, Android Rants
