FCC May Mandate Data Roaming Across US

The Register: Carriers are apparently doing their best to keep the Federal Communications Commission from implementing such as measure however.

"Intracountry roaming – allowing a phone to connect to another network when out of the home network's coverage – has always been part of the US cellular experience. The US regulator has mandated that companies negotiate towards such agreements, for voice, since 2007, and while originally billed at high rates, roaming is now included in most tariffs. But despite that, many smaller operators still can't get coverage across the country, something the new rules on data seem unlikely to change."

"CNET pulls up the town of Lewis, in Delaware, as an example. Lewis has perfectly good coverage with AT&T and Verizon, but not Sprint. The FCC rules mean the companies are obliged to negotiate on voice roaming, at "fair and reasonable rates", but not that they must ever actually reach an agreement, and so the citizens of Lewis are stuck with two operators."