By Caroline E. Mayer
Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 26, 2002; Page E07
The Federal Communications Commission will no longer require cellular phone companies to give potential customers information about their service areas.
By a 3 to 1 vote, the agency has concluded that the 20-year-old rule was outdated and no longer necessary because competition would prompt cell-phone companies to provide service-area information, even without government rules.
Information about service areas typically comes as maps that show what rates customers pay in different geographic areas, along with what features are available to them. For instance, some companies offer digital services only in certain areas. Calls placed outside a company's network often are assessed higher roaming charges.
The rule was enacted in the formative days of the cell-phone industry, when there were only two cell-phone carriers for major cities and one of those carriers was the local telephone firm.
"At that time, the notion was that the regulation was needed to assure consumers had information about coverage," said an FCC official. "There are now six to seven carriers in each market, the market has changed and there's a lot more information out there."
Commissioner Michael J. Copps dissented from the decision earlier this week. Copps said he feared that when the rule is lifted -- about two months from now -- "we face the risk that carriers with the worst service areas will try to conceal their inferiority by not making service maps available."
Wireless industry officials applauded the FCC's actions. Companies such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless indicated they planned to continue issuing service maps to prospective customers.
"It's a market situation -- if customers want it, the companies will respond," said Kim Kuo, spokeswoman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.
Because the rules were initially enacted to cover cellular technology, they never applied to the newer wireless technology, such as PCS offered by Sprint and other firms. Yet, these firms have continued to provide information about their service areas, FCC officials noted.
Chris Murray, Internet and telecommunications counsel for Consumers Union, expressed concern. "It's hard to understand how allowing companies to provide less information to consumers helps makes the market work better," he said.
