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Cell Companies Unsure How Plan for Free Phones to Work

Posted on: Thursday, 27 October 2005, 18:01 CDT

By MARK BALLARD

It sounded simple, but a program to give out free wireless phones and free minutes of calling time to hurricane victims is fraught with confusion.

The main problem is that many cell-phone companies had not heard of the program until evacuees started asking for their free phones, officials with three of the companies that service south Louisiana said Wednesday.

Officials with the companies say that, while aware of the program, they're still trying to figure out the mechanics.

Officials with the cell-phone trade association and the Federal Communications Commission met Wednesday in Washington, D.C., to hammer out details of the program, three company officials said.

In an Oct. 14 order, the Federal Communications Commission asked wireless phone companies to provide free cell phones and 300 free minutes to about 300,000 evacuees.

The offer is open to every household approved for housing assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the FCC order.

Wireless carriers will be reimbursed $130 for each household taking advantage of the program, the FCC order states. The estimated $39 million in costs will come from the Universal Service Fund, a federal pool of money to which all wireless companies contribute.

Hurricane victims must use the plan by March 1, according to the FCC order.

But few of the officials with cellular companies contacted Wednesday knew of the program or whether their companies would participate.

Rosemary Kimball with the FCC consumer and governmental affairs unit in Washington said she was unsure why so many cellular companies were unaware of the order.

"We had a big meeting in Atlanta. They were there when we announced it," Kimball said. "We are confident the wireless companies will participate."

Perry Vincent of LRC Wireless in Lake Charles is a local retailer whose company would hand out some of the phones for Cingular Wireless and Sprint Nextel. Vincent said Wednesday that he needs instructions from the corporate levels before he can participate.

"We haven't heard Word One from our regional managers," Vincent said Wednesday.

Dawn Benton, spokeswoman for Cingular Wireless in Atlanta, said company officials were participating in the meeting with the FCC in Washington.

"Right now Cingular is determining if and how we will participate in the program, and we hope to make a final decision very soon," Benton said Wednesday.

Sprint Nextel Corp. also is studying the order to determine if it will participate, said corporate spokesman Tim O'Regan of Reston, Va.

"We'll probably know something in the next few days, but right now it's under discussion," said Patrick Kimball of Houston, whose Verizon Wireless office covers the Gulf Coast.

"The logistics of this are formidable," Kimball said.

William L. Roughton of Centennial Wireless in Wall, N.J., said he spent Wednesday trying to come up with procedures to participate in the program.

For instance, Roughton said, the FCC requires the head of a household seeking the free phone to be eligible for FEMA housing. But how does the clerk in the shopping mall know that, he asked.

"FEMA must give them a card or something. I've been trying to find out just what it is and what do we need to do for the FCC - make a copy?" Roughton asked. He says those details are important because the program will be audited in the future.

"We're going to participate. We're not sure how yet," Roughton said.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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