WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission told Congress that there is effective competition in the wireless industry, noting a penetration rate of 71 percent and that nearly everyone between the ages of 20 to 49 has a mobile phone.
Nevertheless, one commissioner signing off on the report questioned whether the agency even has a definition of “effective competition.”
“We still have a long way to go to meet the mandate of Congress to analyze whether there is `effective competition’ in the mobile-services market. As in years past, we do not provide an adequate definition of the term. The need for a clearly stated, objectively measurable definition of `effective competition’ gets more compelling every year,” commented FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. “Today’s report is the first to incorporate data reflecting the move from five to four national carriers brought about by the merger of Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. Our conclusion that competition remains effective post-merger would be more credible if we had defined the term ahead of time and then assessed whether current competition data meets our definition. Instead, we come at the problem backwards-gathering some data throughout the year and, when report time rolls around, letting the data drive us to an undefined conclusion that competition is present,” Copps said. “I also believe that any credible definition of `effective competition’ must take account of the effects arising out of the cross-ownership of wireless and wireline companies.”
The release of the data gave commissioners a chance to talk about the future. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate said the recently concluded advanced wireless services auction should lead to more wireless broadband services being deployed.
When Congress released the spectrum for PCS, it mandated the FCC examine the mobile market yearly to determine whether the mobile-phone market was competitive. This is the 11th annual examination.
The examination is based on 2005 data gathered by the FCC from industry studies and general comments.
Some results included in the report are that minutes of use went up 27 percent as the price paid for those minutes when down 27 percent; and the volume of text messages nearly doubled to 48.7 billion in the second half of 2005.
