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Senators request review of cellphone exclusivity deals

Categories: Announcements, FCC
By: , IntoMobile
Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 7:02 PM

kerry-exclusivity-dealsThe long-held tradition of tying cellphones to a certain wireless carrier has been under fire for years now. Last year, the Congressional Subcommittee on Telecommunications was discussing the “fairness” of mobile phone exclusivity agreements sought by wireless carriers and handset manufacturers. Today, our elected officials are taking the fight against exclusivity agreements to the next level. Politicians apparently do serve a purpose in the US government.

A group of US Senators (including former Presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry) have requested that regulators at the FCC review the practice of locking mobile phones to particular wireless carriers. The chief concern is that these exclusive agreements hurt consumer choice. The letter to the FCC reads:

“We ask that you examine this issue carefully and act expeditiously should you find that exclusivity agreements unfairly restrict consumer choice or adversely impact competition in the commercial wireless marketplace.”

We most recently saw the Rural Cellular Association coming out against exclusivity agreements between wireless operators and handset vendors with their petition to the FCC to request a review of AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity contract with Apple.

With a little luck, the unlocked handset market will become a viable reality in the US. And we’re only a decade or so behind the rest of the world. Not bad, eh?

[Via: Yahoo]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Gregory

    While there might be general wide-spread agreement amongst most readers here about this issue (particularily since it deals with access to wireless technology), some of us may think that the government interfering with private contracts is wrong–regardless of their intent for consumer choice.

  • Nolan Hall

    I agree, this is getting ridiculous. There is a representative that wants to limit the volume of TV commercials. These are definitely NOT the issues we want our politicians focusing on. I’m a liberal Democrat, but I think the more the government stays out of the piddly issues, the better.