The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has issued an Order denying a formal complaint filed by NTCH, Inc. (NTCH) against Verizon Wireless (Verizon) alleging that Verizon violated the FCC’s voice and data roaming rules by offering to NTCH roaming rates that are unjust and unreasonable, unreasonably discriminatory, and commercially unreasonable. As is typical in these types of commercial disputes presided over the by FCC, the publicly-released Order redacts all previous rate offers and rate counter-offers by the two parties, and the currently implemented voice and data roaming rates between the parties that gave rise to the commercial dispute. However, the Order does contain the Enforcement Bureau’s legal basis for denying NTCH’s complaint. Ultimately, the Enforcement Bureau determined that Verizon’s voice and data rates “fall well within the range of rates that Verizon offers others and itself pays today.” Furthermore, the Enforcement Bureau determined that, at its core, the NTCH complaint “in essence, seeks new rules for both voice and data roaming that would impose – for the first time – cost-based rates.” In keeping with its earlier precedent in the roaming dispute between T-Mobile and WorldCall, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau denied the smaller carrier’s complaint.
