Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) weighed in on an FCC proposal to ...
Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) weighed in on an FCC proposal to preempt state-specific truth-in-billing rules. MSV agreed with wireless and wireline carriers, who say a patchwork of conflicting state rules hobbles nationwide customer service. The Commission’s 2005 Truth-in-Billing Order…
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extended wireline truth-in-billing rules to Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) providers, including Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) providers like MSV. MSV said it backs the Commission proposal to preempt state-specific truth-in-billing rules because “subjecting CMRS carriers to fifty disparate state regulatory schemes would be unduly burdensome, and would conflict with the federal government’s exclusive jurisdiction over interstate communications.” Further, MSV said, restructuring truth-in-billing requirements to apply state-specific regulations would raise carrier costs and customer rates. CMRS carriers generally have structured their offerings on a nationwide basis, without regard to state borders, MSV said. Compliance with state-specific truth-in-billing regulations would force CMRS carriers to: (1) Identify which communications are purely intrastate, and (2) let those communications be regulated without interfering with any interstate communications or other intrastate communications. MSV said it’s impossible to decide if an MSS call is purely intrastate or not. MSV uses 2 satellites to provide its service, each of which uses 5 slightly overlapping satellite beams across the N. American region. MSV said while it can tell which beam is being used for a particular call, each beam covers thousands of square miles, making it impossible to pinpoint a user’s exact location.