To the Editor:
I read with more than passing interest the interview by Debra Wayne with CTIA President Tom Wheeler in the Feb. 23 edition of RCR, and in particular his response to the question regarding the lack of PCS and SMR resale agreements. The response was predictable in that it was posited on the assumption that these wireless markets already are fully competitive and all that resellers want is the government to step in and require network providers to guarantee them better margins.
Not to quibble with my friend Tom, but I would offer these thoughts for consideration. If wireless markets were fully competitive, we would not be having this debate. The market would function in a way where both retail and wholesale approaches would flourish, side by side. Companies serving these markets would choose whatever combination of marketing and sales channels worked best for them. However, when carriers state that technical or capacity constraints inhibit them from offering a resale product, resale will not occur. When carriers erect operational barriers to resellers, such as offering only paper bills, then resale will not occur.
This reluctant approach is precisely what is happening today in PCS and SMR and is why our statistics show that virtually no on has a resale agreement in place for these services. That also is why it is a spurious argument to say that these wireless services are fully competitive. If these carriers think today’s wireless environment is competitive, then they need to talk with their brethren in long distance (where resale thrives) for a reality check.
What resellers want is a deal that looks like what a carrier is offering its best customers and that is because resellers want to be their best customers. What we need is a better recognition by incumbent carriers that alternative channels of distribution like resale enhance market share and, therefore, need to be embraced. We will get there eventually, either from carrier recognition from the arrival of full competition to this marketplace.
With best wishes,
Cordially,
Ernest B. Kelly, III
President, Telecommunications Resellers Association
