NEW ORLEANS-Calling wireless the poster child for competitive telecommunications, Tom
Wheeler, head of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, said today’s wireless industry will serve as a
model for competitive telecommunications in the future.
“Three years ago today, President Clinton signed the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 that said, ‘We want you to become competitive.’ Wireless is the first segment to
become competitive,” said Wheeler Feb. 8 at Wireless ’99. “If you want to see what competitive
telecommunications will look like tomorrow, look at the wireless industry today.”
Wireless customers
overwhelmingly agreed the wireless industry is at its most competitive level ever, according to a nationwide survey of
803 wireless users conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates last month.
Three out of four wireless users said
there is significant competition in the wireless marketplace, and only 20 percent of respondents indicated they
perceived some or very little competition. CTIA noted 48 percent of the U.S. population can choose from five carriers,
and another 10 percent can choose from 6 carriers.
About 60 percent of wireless subscribers said they considered
multiple service providers before selecting a carrier, and about one-third considered at least three different service
providers. Only about one-fourth of subscribers surveyed this year said they considered only one carrier, compared
with 37 percent last year.
Young consumers, heavy users, business users and those planning to spend more than $50
per month on wireless service were the most likely to consider more than one carrier, said the report.
Wireless
carriers also are expected to increasingly compete with wireline carriers for minutes of use. In all, 38 percent of
consumers in the Peter D. Hart survey indicated they had either some or a lot of interest in replacing their home
telephone with a wireless phone.
Most likely to consider “cutting the cord” are men, members of upper-
income households and heavy users, and three out of every four of those respondents said they might be interested in
switching to wireless within the next three years.
More than half of the respondents said they would be very or fairly
comfortable relying on their wireless phone for a week if their home phone was out of service, signalling a growing
acceptance of wireless as a primary source for communications.
Cost was the biggest concern respondents
expressed about replacing their wireline phone with wireless. Respondents also said features such as a long-life battery,
answering machine or voice messaging system and automatic shut-off would make their wireless phone seem more like
their home phone.
While the wireless industry has demonstrated competition, the government now must take steps
to make sure that competition thrives, said Wheeler. CTIA devised four cornerstones of competitive
telecommunications regulation, including the realization that the competitive market is different and should be
regulated differently than it has in the past; the notion that “regulatory parity” is inherently anti-
competitive; the idea that the government has a responsibility to promote competition and not just proclaim it; and the
responsibility to assume carriers are acting in good faith until proven otherwise.
In addition, CTIA reported nearly
100,000 emergency 911 calls were made from wireless phones each day last year for a total of nearly 36 million
wireless 911 calls throughout the year.
