Everywhere you look, competition is the key phrase.
Paging operator MessageLink noted the intense competition between Internet service providers and paging carriers makes the two ideal partners in the communications business. One company can offer content; one company can offer access.
FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth writes in a guest opinion for the Wall Street Journal that competition cannot be managed by government.
Meanwhile, in this issue’s Regulatory Focus report, CTIA’s Brian Fontes laments that the FCC, starting with Chairman William Kennard, is trying to regulate competition before giving the marketplace a chance to steer the future of wireless communications.
Washington Bureau Chief Jeff Silva reports that this year could be the beginning of competition from broadband wireless firms, which hope to provide high-speed business communications 15 percent to 30 percent cheaper than landline telecom companies.
And in an international story beginning on Page 22, writer Paul Rasmussen notes the wireless communications industry in western Europe is undergoing radical changes as carriers realize they must eat or be eaten. Why? Because in today’s competitive environment, carriers don’t recognize the invisible lines that divide nations.
On its face, competition has to be good for the consumer. I agree with Fontes’ argument that carriers themselves should decide how to market services to customers; that (in the case of calling party pays) carriers will choose how best to serve their customers; that carriers are keenly aware that if they don’t meet their customers’ needs, someone else quickly will charge in to lure those customers away.
But perhaps what the Kennards of the world are afraid of, and what I sense could happen, is as the marketplace competes for desirable customers, less-desirable customers quickly can be forgotten.
More people will buy wireless communications products this year than computers. It’s a nice fact, but in this country, people still sleep in their cars because they can’t afford housing. How does society bring those people all the benefits of wireless communications, all the ease of the Internet? Which carrier will have them as their target market?
Is there room for the have not’s in a wireless world?
