OFFICE OF
THE CHAIRMAN
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
WASHINGTON
March 17,2011
The Honorable Thad Cochran
United States Senate
113 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Cochran:
Thank you for your recent letter urging the Commission to move forward with its
rulemaking on the data roaming obligations ofcommercial wireless providers. I am pleased to
report that, based an extensive record and the recommendation ofthe FCC staff, today I am
circulating to my colleagues a draft order for their consideration that puts in place an obligation
on providers ofcommercial mobile data services to offer roaming arrangements to other such
providers on commercially reasonable terms and conditions, subject to certain limitations
intended to protect the legitimate interests ofthe companies that would be providing roaming.
Such an approach would stimulate constructive private commercial negotiations, unleash
investment in networks, and ultimately foster competition and benefit consumers.
For nearly 30 years, the Commission has, on a bipartisan basis, required roaming in one
form or another to "continue to foster the development ofseamless automatic roaming services
for all [ ] subscribers in the nation.'" As you are likely aware, the National Broadband Plan
identified data roaming as a key element ofa healthy broadband ecosystem. The Plan explained
that "[d]ata roaming is important to entry and competition for mobile broadband services and
would enable customers to obtain access to e-mail, the Internet and other mobile broadband
services outside the geographic regions served by their providers." In April20l0, the
Commission unanimously adopted a Notice ofProposed Rulemaking that sought further
comment on whether to implement a data roaming requirement for wireless providers in order to
ensure that Americans had access to multiple competitive providers that offer seamless
nationwide voice and data coverage.
Through the record in this proceeding, it has become clear that a data roaming rule is
necessary to ensure vibrant competition in the mobile marketplace, to unleash billions of dollars
ofinvestment that is currently sidelined, to create thousands ofnew jobs and to meet the
consumer demand for seamless nationwide coverage, be it for voice or data. The record contains
abundant evidence from both national and rural businesses that a data roaming rule is necessary
to achieve these important goals because some providers have been unwilling to negotiate either
3G or 4G data roaming agreements or have created long delays or taken other steps to impede
healthy competition and roaming for consumers. Moreover, as the mobile world moves to LTE,
I Reexamination of Roaming Obligations ofCommercial Mobile Radio Service Providers, WT Docket No. 05-265,
Report and Order and Further Notice ofProposed Rulemaking, 22 FCC Rcd 15817, 15831~35 (2007).
Page 2-The Honorable Thad Cochran
the Commission's basic bipartisan voice roaming rules will be in jeopardy, as they will no longer
ensure automatic voice roaming.
To address these issues, I have proposed data roaming rules that incent potential roaming
partners to come to the bargaining table to negotiate private commercial deals. These rules also
balance the need for commercial roaming agreements with the legitimate challenges posed by
network congestion. Moreover, it ensures that the Commission is merely a backstop in the
process, and that it is in the best interest of all parties to work out private deals without relying
on the Commission.
Thank you again for taking the time to express your views on this very important matter.
I am happy to answer any further questions you may have.