FCC Roaming Rules Save Sprint $15 Billion

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission has enacted “Roaming” policies over the last two years that have actually cost the American economy much needed network infrastructure investment and the jobs associated with that investment.

At the time, I was commenting on Sprint’s recently announced decision to “roam” at regulated rates in large portions of Kansas and Oklahoma (where it owns spectrum) rather than make the investments necessary to replace its network infrastructure in those areas. Sprint quantified exactly how many billions of dollars that Sprint avoided investing by “trading off” roaming for capital investment and job creation. Sprint executed a business strategy that began four years ago to lower capital investment. In other words, Sprint wanted to stop investing in its own network and ride on the network investments other carriers have made. Sprint changed its regulatory advocacy from opposing the imposition of roaming obligations to supporting roaming obligations.