Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC launches inquiry into foreign mobile termination fees

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:33:20 -0500

FCC launches inquiry into foreign mobile termination fees
By Jeffrey Silva
March 11 13:24:00, 2004

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission today launched an
inquiry to assess the impact of high foreign
mobile termination fees on American consumers, dragging the United
States further into a controversy that domestic and international
wireless carriers would rather see settled by overseas regulators and
the market place.

FCC members indicated they too are reluctant to intervene, but said they
need to gather additional information and study the mobile termination
fee issue in order to determine whether further regulatory action is
necessary.

“An NOI [Notice of Inquiry] is the best way the commission has to gather
information in the most transparent and open process possible,” said FCC
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat. “And I cannot emphasize
enough that this NOI into foreign mobile termination rates is simply
that—an inquiry. I have not prejudged an outcome and, indeed, my
preferred outcome would be that the market resolves itself. I hope the
record ultimately bears this out, but want to make sure we keep an eye
on it in the meantime.”

Long distance giants, particularly AT&T Corp. and MCI Worldcom Inc.,
want the FCC to expand regulations currently governing settlement of
U.S.-international wireline calls to include wireless traffic.

Global telecom giant Vodafone Group plc and the Cellular
Telecommunications & Internet Association have urged the FCC
not to meddle in the mobile termination fee fracas.

The European Union and other overseas regulators have pressed their
mobile phone carriers to lower fees wireless
operators charge consumers for calls completed on their networks.
Indeed, there are signs some foreign mobile phone
termination fees are coming down. The fee problem is more pronounced in
Europe, which has a calling-party-pays
regime. In the U.S., mobile subscribers pay for calls others make to
them. That's what I thought small bursts of data similar to SMS
messaging.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=17260
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