To the Editor:
I read with great interest Heather Forsgren Weaver’s article on wireless resale in the April 19 issue of RCR. While I was pleased to see that resellers like Select Wireless Inc. can grow a successful resale business from the ground up, I was not surprised to read that it is getting harder for resellers to compete as wireless carriers introduce more discounted calling plans.
I was not surprised simply because wireless carriers themselves are encountering more competition, just as policy makers hoped when they licensed more facilities-based CMRS carriers. This competitive pressure has been well noted by the Federal Communications Commission in its annual reports to Congress, in a torrent of popular press stories, and by the more than 70 million wireless users who are the beneficiaries of this competition.
A wireless epoch ago, back in 1981, the FCC created its wireless rules and made clear that there was no guarantee that a resale market would develop, and that it would not guarantee that resellers (or facilities-based wireless carriers) would make a profit.
Ernest Kelly, president of the Telecommunications Resellers Association, asks “Competition is not just driving prices down. How do you help small businesses?” The U.S. Supreme Court has provided the answer: our laws are designed to protect competition, not competitors.
Michael Altschul
Vice President, General Counsel
Cellular Telecommunications
Industry Association
