MAP joined together with the Ad Hoc Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) in urging the FCC to prevent wireless providers from forcing consumers to purchase cellphones and other equipment directly from them.

Media Access Project released two studies by Dr. Gregory Rose analyzing the “advanced wireless services,” or AWS-1, Auction conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in August and September 2006. The studies showed:

This study examines a concerted effort by major incumbents in the FCC’s AWS-spectrum auction to target those new entrants whose entry harbingered significant potential competitive broadband threat if (1) they acquired national AWS footprint in the AWS-1 auction or (2) they acquired a strong regional or multi-regional base from which they could acquire national footprint in future auctions.

Media Access Project’s President and CEO Andrew Jay Schwartzman issued the following statement in response to Tribune’s Announcement of its proposed sale to Sam Zell:

bq. “Tribune has made another bad choice. Seven years ago, it bet that it could change FCC ownership rules to hold on to its co-located newspapers and TV stations (in Ft. Lauderdale, Hartford, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). It lost that gamble when citizens groups successfully opposed repeal of those policies.”