Subject: [NEXTEL-1] CTIA tells members to show maps with coverage areas, not licensed territories

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 17:54:29 -0500

Largent at NARUC: corrected version
CTIA tells members to show maps with coverage areas, not licensed
territories
By Heather Forsgren Weaver
March 09 13:18:00, 2004

Editor’s Note: This item originally ran in Monday’s Web update. However,
information regarding CTIA’s position on cell broadcasts was misstated.
The corrected version is below.

WASHINGTON—The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association has
had to clarify for some of its members what maps must be available for
them to be eligible to display the CTIA Consumer Code symbol, said CTIA
President Steve Largent.

“We have cuffed some of our carriers. There have been some issues where
some of the roaming partners had put on their maps ‘licensed territory’
as opposed to ‘coverage area’ and those are not necessarily the same so
what we want to make sure is that in our Consumer Code that we are
putting down an accurate map that deals with the actual coverage area
not necessarily the licensed area,” said Largent. “We are finding a
great deal of compliance. It has a great benefit to the consumer. Our
response is that if you are not going to comply with the code then you
don’t get to display the symbol. We are not a in a position to levy
fines or beat them about the heads and shoulders but we haven’t had to
because the carriers have wanted to comply because they see it as a
social good.

It was really not a matter of somebody trying to get away with
something. It was really just a lack of clarity in the code
so we said, ‘let us clarify for you, this is what it means.’”

Largent spoke to RCR Wireless News following a speech he gave on Sunday
to the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners.

During his appearance before the state regulators, one critic, Anne
Boyle of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, seemed dubious that
CTIA would really enforce its Consumer Code of Conduct.

Largent’s appearance at the NARUC convention is an attempt to show state
regulators that the wireless industry takes serious its relationship
with consumers. He told the NARUC telecommunications and consumer
affairs subcommittees that he had met with John Walsh of “America’s Most
Wanted” to discuss how the mobile-phone industry could assist in the
Amber Alert program to find missing children.

“I met with John Walsh of ‘America’s Most Wanted.’ We are talking about
working on Amber Alerts and the role that the wireless industry could
play. When a little 11-year old girl in Florida gets snatched, there is
a space for the wireless industry to play to make our communities safer,
to safeguard on children and provide peace of mind for parents across
the country,” Largent told the state regulators.

Largent’s meeting with Walsh came after the TV show aired a segment
supporting the Consensus Plan to solve the public-safety interference
problem in the 800 MHz band, he told RCR Wireless News.

CTIA opposes the Consensus Plan, which would shuffle the 800 MHz band to
eliminate the current situation where public safety, private wireless,
Nextel Communications Inc. and cellular carriers are intermingled.
Nextel has said that it would pay $850 million for the necessary
retuning of public-safety and private-wireless radios. Nextel said it
would deposit $100 million in an escrow account and secure irrevocable
lines of credit for the remaining $750 million.  In exchange for giving
up spectrum in the 700, 800 and 900 MHz bands and for paying to retune
public safety and private wireless, Nextel has asked for 10 megahertz in
the 1.9 GHz band.

RCR Wireless News first reported Oct. 27 that FCC staff is contemplating
a proposal that would give Nextel no more than 6 megahertz of spectrum
in the 1.9 GHz band.

CTIA and the United Telecom Council favor the Balanced Approach Plan,
which calls for timely resolution of current interference at the expense
of the interferor, coupled with technical rules, notification and
coordination procedures to prevent new interference.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=17219
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