WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission proclaimed the good news that the wireless industry is competitive, as more than 75 percent of the population can choose between five or more wireless carriers.
“Not every item that will come to you will be a good-news item, but we think this is a good-news item. … The commission’s pro-competitive and deregulatory policies are working in the wireless industry. … What you want to see going up is going up, what you want to see going down is going down,” said Thomas J. Sugrue, chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
This trend was celebrated by former wireless lobbyist turned FCC Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy. “Today’s report is an incredible success story. … It also shows where pro-consumer, deregulatory policies can work together,” Abernathy said.
The commission complained its annual wireless competition report was not detailed enough.
New FCC Commissioner Michael Copps wanted more details about rural America, despite the report’s findings that almost 91 percent of the population has access to three or more wireless carriers-including cellular, PCS and enhanced SMR.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell asked for more information about the use of wireless data. Powell has said repeatedly that two-way messaging and e-mail are other forms of communication that should be considered when regulating or-his preference-deregulating telephony.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult to capture and understand how consumers are communicating,” he said at the first open meeting with Copps and Abernathy and without former FCC Commissioners Susan Ness and Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Sugrue said the information on wireless-data usage was difficult to collect because each carrier configures its network differently. Some charge for wireless data usage by the minute, but other services like short messaging service are often charged by the message, he said.
The rise in the various ways of communicating means the wireless industry needs more spectrum, said the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
“As consumer growth continues and wireless devices become more integrated into our lives, the wireless industry will depend on more spectrum to provide the enhanced services consumers are asking for, such as wireless Web access,” said CTIA President Thomas E. Wheeler.
FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani was concerned there was not more information on consumer complaints.
While the number of complaints may have risen, Sugrue said he believes it is because of subscribership increases and not an increase in bad service.
“There has been a rise of complaints but I don’t know that it is disproportionate to the rise in subscribers. … People’s expectations in the service are getting much higher. Five years ago … people were just happy to be able to place calls some of the time. Now it has changed. It should change. It should be a mature service. … I think the bar has been raised substantially on the industry. I think that is something they need to address,” said Sugrue.
Details of the sixth annual report, which was required by Congress, are as follows:
Subscribership is up 584 percent since 1993;
Consumers use an average of 255 minutes per month. This represents an increase of 82 percent since 1993;
price per minute has decreased 64 percent since 1993 to 21 cents per minute in 2000;
Nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population has a choice of seven or more carriers. This percentage increases to nearly 47 percent for six or more, more than 75 percent for five or more, more than 84 percent for four or more and nearly 91 percent for three or more;
Customers’ monthly bills are down from a high of more than $61 in 1993 to more than $45, but that is higher than 1999, which was more than $41;
A comparison of the costs of adding an additional wireline phone line to a home or obtaining a wireless phone showed the wireless service to be cheaper-$38.84 for wireless to $47.29 for wireline;
Wireless penetration in the United States is 39 percent. The country with the highest penetration is Sweden at 76 percent, and China is the lowest with 7 percent;
95 percent of the population has access to digital service;
There are 45.3 million paging subscribers; and
There are 650,000 subscribers on dedicated data networks.
