§332 Mobile Services

Summary

The Federal Communications Commission must try to make good choices when it manages radio spectrum for private mobile services. It must think about whether its actions will keep people and property safe, make radio use more efficient and less costly for users, help competition and reach more users, and let different services share spectrum when possible. The Commission may use advice from outside experts who are not federal employees; those people and the committees that help are not treated as federal employees and some federal personnel rules do not apply to them. A company that sells commercial mobile service must be treated like a common carrier under this law, unless the Commission says specific parts of the law do not apply. The Commission cannot remove the requirements in sections 201, 202, or 208. It may remove other rules only if it finds those rules are not needed to keep charges fair, protect consumers, and are consistent with the public interest. On reasonable request, the Commission must order a common carrier to make physical connections with a commercial mobile service. The Commission must finish a rulemaking about licensing personal communications services within 180 days after August 10, 1993. A provider of a private mobile service is not a common carrier. A common carrier generally may not offer dispatch service on frequencies set aside for common carrier service, except for stations licensed before January 1, 1982, unless the Commission changes that rule. State and local governments may not control who can enter the market or set the rates for commercial or private mobile services, but they can regulate other service terms. States may still require universal service rules for providers that replace landline phone service for many people. A State can ask the Commission for permission to regulate rates if it shows the market does not protect consumers from unfair or discriminatory rates, or if the mobile service replaces landline phone service for a substantial part of the State. If a State had a rate rule on June 1, 1993, it can petition within 1 year after August 10, 1993 to keep that authority; the State’s rule stays in effect until the Commission finishes action on the petition. The Commission must act on such petitions within 12 months. After the Commission grants state rate authority, anyone may later ask the Commission to end that authority; the Commission must allow public comment and decide within 9 months. The law does not change how the Communications Satellite Act treats certain satellite companies, and the Commission may still decide whether satellite capacity used by mobile services counts as common carriage. The Commission may waive the foreign-ownership rule in section 310(b) for ownership that lawfully existed before May 24, 1993 if a petition is filed within 6 months after August 10, 1993, but the foreign interest cannot increase above its May 24, 1993 level and cannot be transferred in ways that would violate section 310(b). States and localities keep authority over where personal wireless facilities go, but their rules must not unfairly favor some providers, must not block service, must act within a reasonable time, must give written denials with substantial evidence, and may not regulate radio-frequency emissions if the facilities meet the Commission’s rules; people harmed by illegal local action may sue within 30 days or ask the Commission for relief. Definitions: “commercial mobile service” = a for-profit mobile service that offers interconnected service to the public or a large part of it; “interconnected service” = service tied to the public phone network or awaiting an interconnection order; “private mobile service” = any mobile service that is not a commercial mobile service.