Northwest Missouri Cellular Speaks before Senate Committee on Obstacles Facing Small Carriers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                      Contact: Lucy Tutwiler

May 14, 2010                                                                                                             (202) 449-9866

Northwest Missouri Cellular Speaks before Senate Committee on Obstacles Facing Small Carriers

Washington, DC – Yesterday, Roger Bundridge, General Manager of Northwest Missouri Cellular, and a Board of Directors member of the Rural Cellular Association (RCA), spoke before the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee on access to broadband services and the challenges facing small, rural carriers.

Northwest Missouri Cellular covers a primarily rural area, and its 22 employees operate out of a single location in Maryville, MO.  Although it is a small business, they have been successful competing directly with major carriers, and they have found a solution for bringing 3G services to all its customers, whether a farmer or university campus security guard.  However, as it looks forward to the future of 4G, Northwest Missouri Cellular, like many other RCA members, faces a major obstacle: it does not have access to 4G equipment, or data roaming agreements for 3G.  The majority of the most high- tech equipment is tied up in exclusivity agreements with the larger carriers, and companies like Northwest Missouri Cellular cannot get access to the equipment, while drawn-out negotiations delay the agreement and implementation of 3G roaming

“We’ve been buying spectrum for 4G,” said Bundridge, “but we cannot get access to the handsets.  Today there is no equipment being produced for us, while AT&T and Verizon have having equipment made with bands specific to them.”

Bundridge continued, “I want to provide service to those customers I have today with 4G, and I encourage the Committee to push for an end to handset exclusivity agreements.  We work hard for our customers, and when a customer comes in and asks why we do not have a certain device or service, I want to make it happen for them.  Increasingly, our customers are purchasing data plans to use with Blackberries and Android devices.  While 85% of our customers’ data traffic is on our networks, our customers expect and deserve 3G data services while traveling, so we need 3G data roaming agreements to provide this to them.”

About RCA

RCA is the nation's leading association for wireless providers serving rural areas of the United States. The licensed service area of RCA's nearly 80 members covers more than 80 percent of the nation.

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