WASHINGTON-Rather than relying on industry-supplied data-much of it from the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association-the Federal Communications Commission is seeking comment on the state of competition in the mobile phone and mobile-data industries.
“The CMRS [commercial mobile radio services] Competition Report serves as the factual foundation of many [FCC] decisions,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. “I have been particularly worried that past reports have defined an entire county as being served by a carrier if any part of the county is served. This means we have counted an entire county as served even though only a highway that runs through it is actually served. We also have found competition in a county even where two apparent competitors do not venture into each other’s territory to actually compete.”
The information gathered by the FCC will be used in the eighth annual competition report to be released next summer.
This is the first time the FCC has proactively asked for information to be used in its report rather than develop its report by gathering information from the CTIA semi-annual surveys, Wall Street analyst reports and other industry-generated sources.
