Steve Largent: the CTIA has to be ‘a leading
advocate for the industry’ with politicians:
‘We assume we’re dealing with a blank slate’

The US mobile industry’s trade association, the CTIA, is to provide a short code text service for operators in South and Central America, following a request from the region’s two largest operators

The US mobile industry’s trade association, the CTIA, is to provide a short code text service for operators in South and Central America, following a request from the region’s two largest operators

The CTIA — formerly the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association — will be providing the service at the request of Telefónica and América Móvil, the two largest operators in Latin America.

The CTIA hopes that other operators will follow Telefónica and América Móvil. “If we can get them on board, everyone else will too,” CEO Steve Largent tells Global Telecoms Business.

Short codes are typically codes of four, five or six digits which allow mobile phone customers to respond to advertisements or ask for information by SMS without keying in a full phone number. Though each operator can have its own set of codes, it is more usual for all service providers in one country to have a harmonised list.

The CTIA already coordinates short codes for text messaging in the US, via an offshoot called Common Short Code Administration, with technology provided by NeuStar.

“We hand out short codes for the US market,” says Largent, in an interview with Global Telecoms Business. “We will be providing the same application in Latin America. If companies want a short code they come to us.” The CTIA charges for the service.

In the US each carrier has to programme each code into its network so that messages are routed correctly.

The South and Central American service for Telefónica and América Móvil will start “at the end of this year”, says Largent. “They approached us.”

The short-code administration service is one of the commercial operations that the CTIA runs in order to fund its service for its members, which are “250 of the largest companies in the wireless industry”, says Largent. Just under 50 of them are carriers.

Industry advocate

One of the CTIA’s main functions, though, is to be “a leading advocate for the industry before Congress, the FCC and state and local jurisdictions”, he explains. “We are the voice for the industry. We try to speak as passionately as possible about the industry.”

Does the industry need someone to speak passionately in its favour? When dealing with politicians “we assume we’re dealing with a blank slate”, says Largent. “We try to educate the legislators on what we’re doing and how laws impact the industry.”

Much of the CTIA’s work is with politicians is about technology. “ They don’t understand how it works.”

And the association also influences the operators among its member companies, particularly over consumer issues. For example, consumers were getting irritated about having to pay penalties to operators if they wanted to end their contracts early, even just a month before they ran out.

“There was a big battle by consumers — and we got such a negative response from them that the industry changed the policy,” says Largent.

Companies used to charge for even a small change in a contract — even if a customer wanted to add more minutes to a bundles or to extend the period, which an operator regarded as an early termination of an existing contract, to be replaced with another. Early termination fees were understandably unpopular. “Now companies don’t do that any more,” he says. “And that was without the need for government intervention.”

The CTIA membership includes all top four operators in tier one —AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. “There were six previously, but they’ve consolidated into four,” he notes.

About one third of the small wireless carriers are members — that is, those with fewer than 50,000 customers each — and all of those with more than 50,000 and fewer than 500,000, which is where tier one starts.

Apple and Google

“We also represent infrastructure suppliers, application providers and handset providers,” says Largent. “Apple and Google are members.”

But the CTIA has a difficult job balancing the interests of its different members — particularly the contrasting requirements of small and large operators. President Barack Obama has allocated $7 billion to fund rural broadband access, but the CTIA’s larger members have not wanted to use it because of the conditions that would be applied “and $7 billion is such a small number compared with what they’re investing”, says Largent.

On the other hand the money “has been a blessing for some small companies”.

US mobile penetration is still on the low side among developed economies — at 84-87%, says Largent. That compares with a European Union average of 125% and figures as high as 150% in some parts of the 27-nation EU.

“I don’t know that we’ll get over 100%,” says Largent. “The US is much larger and more diverse, racially and economically.” The current penetration “is not a surprise to me”.

There is more controversy for the CTIA to referee when an operator commissions an exclusive device from a handset vendor. Because of the cost, it’s the big operators that can afford that, so they get the pick of the best new devices. “Smaller companies don’t have access and they fall behind,” he says.

How does he balance their interests, when the CTIA represents most operators as well as vendors? “We have to tread very carefully,” he says.

Focus on US

The CTIA does not compete with the GSM Association, which represents most operators worldwide. Geography is one difference: “The US is 100% of our focus,” says Largent, while the GSMA operates worldwide — though it is limited to those using the GSM 2G family of technologies and its 3G and 4G successors.

That means Sprint, which uses CDMA 2G technology in the US, is not a member of the GSMA; Verizon also uses CDMA for 2G and 3G but is moving to LTE — based on the GSM family — for 4G, so is now involved in the GSMA.

On the other hand, the CTIA welcomes all companies involved in US operations, whatever their technology — indeed, it started up back in the analogue days in 1983.

“We collaborate with the GSMA,” says Largent. For example, the global association took the initiative at the beginning of 2009 to announce a universal charger, with a standard connector for all mobile phones in the future.

“We’ve grabbed the GSMA’s coat-tails,” he says: but the CTIA has taken the initiative one step further, by leading a move to have a standard connector for headsets. “We jumped on board and our carriers agreed,” he says.

Like the GSMA, an important function of the CTIA is exhibitions and conferences for the industry. CTIA Wireless runs for three days in Las Vegas from March 23 2010 — marking 25 years since the organisation’s first event.

“It attracts 40,000 people,” says Largent. There’s a smaller event, in October each year, focussing on internet services and entertainment, with 15,000 visitors.

Because it concentrates on one country, the CTIA can work at a depth that is not possible for the GSMA, which has to work with politicians in almost 200 governments.

Net neutrality

In the US the hot topic at the moment is net neutrality, the idea that internet service providers, fixed and wireless, should not limit customers’ access to legal content services — even if, the implication is, those services compete with the operators’ own.

Voice over IP is one such service. Video services, including broadcasters’ own, competing with operators’ own bundles, are particularly controversial.

Under the Obama administration the Federal Communications Commission appears to be taking a more liberal line with net neutrality — much to the dismay of many operators.

“Our companies are very nervous about what that could mean,” says Largent about net neutrality. “If you allow any device or programme to connect, you have the ability to bring down the network. It could undermine the wireless industry. It is a real threat to the industry.”

There have to be “some exceptions” to the principle of net neutrality, he continues. “We have to be able to manage our networks.”

So, “it’s an education process” with politicians, says Largent — himself a former politician. From 1994 to 2001 he was in the House of Representatives, as a Republican Party representative for part of Oklahoma. He resigned to stand for election in 2002 as governor of the state, but lost by 7,000 votes to his Democrat opponent.

How does he plan to show the politicians what the technology can — and can’t — do? “We’ve talked about having a cell on wheels,” he says. That’s a base station on a truck, which the CTIA or one of its members would park close to Congress and then invite politicians and others to test its limits.