Roaming revenues were once the cash cow for rural operators as large operators embarked on nationwide calling services, but now a group of 25 regional and rural carriers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to regulate the exorbitant rates these large operators are charging their customers to roam. The group of operators has asked the commission to re-examine roaming obligations because they are concerned that "competitive market forces alone are no longer sufficient to ensure that they will be able to provide their customers with reasonable, affordable access to automatic roaming services." Operators such as Leap Wireless and SouthernLINC Wireless say they are paying wholesale rates as much as seven times greater than larger operators and as much as four times the rate of retail customers. This isn't the first time rural operators have urged the FCC to address the issue. The FCC has stuttered two times on the issue since 2000.
To read more about the roaming concerns of rural operators:
- take a look at this article from TelecomWeb
- check out this report from RCR Wireless News