What started as a hard 45MHz limit enacted back in 1994 to ensure that there was enough spectrum to go around in every market was first raised, then eliminated, then later changed to a somewhat more toothless guideline used for analyzing proposed mergers, and rural carriers are pretty fired up about it. Following an absolutely dominating performance by the big boys in this year's 700MHz auction, the nation's back-country providers are more concerned than ever that license distribution in some markets is making it virtually impossible to compete. The solution? Bring the ol' cap back into play, but plug it at 110MHz instead of the 45 they started with nearly a decade and a half ago, a reflection of the RF-saturated, heavily licensed world we now inhabit. They've managed to pique the interest of some congresspeople, too, so there's a fighting chance this could go through; if it does, the Verizon-Alltel merger could turn into a fire sale of freed spectrum, which we imagine these little guys would be just delighted to scoop up in bulk.

[Via Phone Scoop]

It's no secret that rural and regional carriers don't enjoy the most amiable relationship with the Big Four here in the States; there's a plethora of reasons why the two groups don't always get along, but whether they like it or not, they're sorta stuck in the same boat. In terms of infrastructure, the national carriers obviously own (or hold exclusive leases to) far more property, leaving them holding nearly all the cards in the roaming game. That leaves the regionals in a bit of a pickle, and once again, they're turning to the FCC for help. This time around, the main complaint circles around the regionals' desire for the national carriers to be required to offer automatic roaming; that is, any carrier of the same technology (GSM or CDMA, that is) should be allowed to roam on their network at a "reasonable" price. Furthermore, they're asking the FCC to to require that any service offered by the nationals be offered to regional carriers' customers as well -- we're not really sure we're following that part of the argument, since it's the big guys that end up footing the bill for the technology build-outs (albeit by charging their own customers in kind) -- but then again, we're all about choice. Predictably, the nationals aren't happy; both T-Mobile and Cingular have come out against the proposal, and we're guessing Sprint and Verizon share the sentiment. It's not known when (or if) the FCC will make a ruling, but the outcome could ultimately determine the fate of some rural carriers relying heavily on third-party infrastructure to provide their user base with service.

[Via The Wireless Report]

Excuse our lack of shock on this one, but if you believe what the nation's rural carriers are saying, the Big Four aren't playing nice with roaming agreements. Thanks to extensive build-outs, the days when Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile relied heavily on mom-and-pop companies to provide rural coverage are long gone. The opposite, however, is not true: customers of rural carriers are virtually always roaming when they venture into civilization. The inequity is leading to some unpleasant pricing schemes that are making business tough if you don't own a national network. USA Today specifically cites NTCH, SouthernLinc, and Leap Wireless as getting the shaft from Sprint, Nextel (both pre-merger), and Verizon respectively, all of whom have made roaming prohibitively expensive or disallowed it entirely. So far, the FCC hasn't put its foot down, but an investigation is underway and rural carriers are calling for the enforcement of consistent, reasonable roaming rates. Hey, FCC, while you're at it, can you enforce a consistent rate of $2/gallon for gas? No?