WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Thursday said the wireless industry remains highly competitive, but concerns were raised about the quality of data collected by the agency and whether rural consumers are missing out on the benefits of service choice, lower prices and new digital features.
FCC member Michael Copps, a Democrat, said the mobile-phone firms refused to help federal regulators collect data on the state of wireless industry competition. Copps has criticized FCC data-gathering efforts in the past.
“If industry will not assist us in this effort, I believe that the commission has a responsibility to contract with outside, independent researchers to gather the following data,” said Copps. “First, we need independent data on wireless prices. We currently have no pricing data at all on smaller markets and rely instead on pricing in the most-competitive, biggest markets as a proxy for the least-competitive, smallest markets.”
FCC Chairman Michael Powell called the agency’s report “the most comprehensive and complete” snapshot of the wireless sector.
Among the major findings of the eighth annual wireless competition report:
- During 2002, the mobile telephone sector generated more than $76 billion in revenues, and the number of mobile telephone subscribers rose from 128.5 million to 141.8 million, resulting in a nationwide penetration rate of roughly 49 percent. Broadband PCS and digital SMR licensees continued to deploy their networks. To date, 270 million people, or 95 percent of the total U.S. population, live in counties with three or more different mobile telephone operators, and more than 236 million people, or 83 percent of the U.S. population, live in counties with five or more operators competing to offer service
- Digital technology is now widespread in the commercial wireless industry. Approximately 278 million people, or 97 percent of the total U.S. population, live in counties where operators offer digital mobile telephone service, and digital subscribers made up approximately 88 percent of all mobile telephone subscribers at the end of 2002, up from 80 percent at the end of 2001.
- During 2002, subscribers’ average monthly cell-phone use continued to rise, and the price per minute of mobile telephone service continued to fall. Minutes of use per month averaged 427 between June and December 2002, an increase of 12 percent from 380 during the same period in 2001. Estimates for the decrease in the price of mobile telephone service during 2002 range from 1 to 9 percent, depending on the methodology employed.
- Mobile data services have begun to play a more significant role in the CMRS industry. While such services generated only 1 percent of total industry revenue during 2002, an estimated 11.9 million, or 8 percent, of the 141.8 million mobile telephone subscribers at the end of 2002 subscribed to some type of mobile Internet service. An additional 2.3 million consumers subscribed to mobile Internet services on data-only mobile devices at the end of 2002. Mobile data providers began offering a variety of new services to consumers during the past year, including downloadable ring tones and graphics, multimedia messaging services and interactive gaming. In addition, established services, such as text messaging and e-mail, continued to grow in popularity. It is estimated that 20 percent of all mobile telephone subscribers used text-messaging services during the fourth quarter of 2002.
- Mobile telephone carriers continued to upgrade their networks with next-generation technologies (including GPRS and CDMA 1xRTT), which allow them to offer mobile data services at higher data transfer speeds typically ranging from 30 to 70 kilobits per second. As of March 2003, operators were offering services over these next-generation networks in at least some portion of U.S. counties containing 265 million people, or 93 percent of the U.S. population.
