[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 18, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1914-E1915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION FOR H.R. 3565, REQUIRING RATE INTEGRATION FOR WIRELESS 
                             COMMUNICATIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 18, 2007

  Ms. BORDALLO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce legislation 
that will require rate integration for wireless interstate toll 
charges. Specifically, this legislation, H.R. 3565, would amend Section 
254(g) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996, to provide for rate integration of 
wireless long distance service within the United States, including the 
territories. This legislation, if enacted, would require uniformity in 
rates charged by cellular phone and other wireless service providers 
for calls and communications to and from Guam within the United States.
  Section 254(g) directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
``to adopt rules to require that the rates charged by providers of 
interexchange telecommunication services to subscribers in rural and 
high cost areas shall be no higher than the rates charged by each such 
provider to its subscribers in urban areas.''
  Pursuant to Section 254(g), the FCC promulgated a regulation (FCC 
Order 98-347) to cover Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) as an 
interexchange service. CMRS includes Personal Communications Service 
(PCS) and cellular services. In defense of their Order, the FCC noted 
that ``if Congress had intended to exempt CMRS providers, it presumably 
would have done so expressly as it had done in other sections of the 
[1996 Telecommunications] Act.''
  The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia 
Circuit, however, subsequently vacated FCC Order 98-347, by ruling that 
interexchange telecommunication services do not encompass CMRS. In its 
ruling, the Court cited the phrase ``interexchange telecommunications 
service'' contained in Section 254(g). Since wireless 
telecommunications

[[Page E1915]]

technically do not use exchanges, the Court held that ``it is by no 
means obvious that the Congress, when it used a phrase in which the 
word `interexchange' is an essential term, was referring to CMRS.''
  It is, therefore, unclear from the language of the statute whether 
section 254 applies to wireless services. Section 254 does not include 
specific language regarding its applicability to wireless services. Nor 
does it specifically exclude such services. Moreover, the legislative 
history of Section 254(g) is not instructive as to Congress' intent 
regarding the applicability of the rate integration requirement to 
wireless services.
  Ambiguity in the law therefore exists. As a result, cellular 
customers are subject to varying rates for calls made within the United 
States. This is particularly evident with respect to rates assessed to 
calls made to Guam and to the other U.S. territories under service 
plans offered to cellular customers within the 48 contiguous states of 
the United States. Again, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires 
rate integration for noncellular, landline communication services. The 
legislation that I have reintroduced today would simply extend this 
same requirement to wireless communications.
  Rate integration for wireless interstate toll charges is important to 
businesses and individuals located on the U.S. mainland who engage in 
regular and reoccurring voice communication with other businesses and 
contacts located in the offshore territories. Family members and 
friends are among the customers who are assessed higher and different 
rates for cellular calls made to Guam or to the other territories. 
These differences in wireless rates exist despite the fact that the 
U.S. territories are included in the North American Numbering Plan, the 
numbering plan for the Public Switched Telephone Network of the United 
States.
  This legislation would bring the uniformity and fairness in rates 
desired by those consumers located on Guam who aim to keep in regular 
contact with relatives, friends, and associates who reside in other 
parts of the United States through the latest technology. Additionally, 
as technology in telecommunication advances, laws should be updated and 
developed to keep pace. This legislation would update existing law to 
take into account advances in and the popularity of wireless 
telecommunications since enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 
1996. The legislation would do so in a manner consistent with both a 
previous, but vacated, FCC Order and with rate integration requirements 
applied to other more traditional telecommunication technology.
  I look forward to addressing the issue of rate integration for 
wireless services as part of any legislative effort to reauthorize the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996.

                          ____________________