The FCC has opened in inquiry into the state of competition in the US wireless market. Following on the FCC’s investigation into the iPhone Google Voice fiasco, the new FCC, headed by recently-seated chairman Julius Genachowski, voted unanimously on Thursday to look into business practices among US wireless carriers. Under scrutiny are carriers’ roaming deals, handset exclusivity deals and spectrum auction rules. With the US wireless market controlled in large part by the Big Four (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile), the FCC wants to protect consumers by ensuring healthy competition.
“It is essential that the Commission develop policies that encourage a new generation of innovators, working with new tools, on new platforms, and having an extraordinary impact on our economy and society,” said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.
This is what the FCC has to say on the matter:
“The Commission seeks comment on whether there are opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services.”
“We are now in the midst of a transition from reliance on mobile voice services to increasing use of and reliance on mobile broadband services, which promise to connect American citizens in new and profound ways. A robustly competitive mobile wireless market will be essential to realizing the full benefits to American consumers and channeling investment into vitally important national infrastructure. The FCC is seeking to ensure that competition in the mobile wireless market continues to bring substantial benefits to American consumers.”
But, don’t think that just because the FCC has opened an inquiry into the matter that we’ll be seeing an official investigation or new legislation. Inquiries are only used to gather facts on an issue of interest. On the other hand, if the FCC finds that wireless carriers aren’t living up to free market expectations for competition, new bills might be put before Congress. That would likely bode well for the consumer.
Congress has been debating issues like text messaging prices and mobile phone exclusivity agreements between handset makers and carriers (like AT&T and Apple). It’s clear that our politicians are looking to give the wireless industry a makeover, and an FCC-backed bill would likely go a long way in Congress.
Or, as Ubergizmo‘s Hubert so concisely put it, this FCC inquiry “will most likely lead to nothing.”