Media Access Project Asks FCC To Promote Competition and Consumer Choice in the Wireless Market
Posted: Monday June 15, 2009
Media Access Project (MAP) and other public interest organizations asked the Federal Communications Commission today to recognize the mobile wireless market as anticompetitive and harmful to user choice and innovation.
MAP, Consumers Union, Free Press, Consumer Federation of America, New America Foundation, and Public Knowledge laid out a variety of measures by which wireless providers have leveraged their market power to shut out competition at the expense of consumers and competitor mobile wireless providers. The comments were filed in connection with the Commission’s preparation of its annual report on Commercial Mobile Radio Services.
Among the complaints raised by the organizations were the use of exclusive handsets and mobile devices, early termination fees, contract extensions, and parallel pricing measures. MAP and its allies claimed that such activities have resulted in fewer choices for consumers in pricing models, services, applications, and devices, and they have also limited innovation, especially in the ancillary device market.
“As more and more consumers turn to the use of wireless services, especially wireless broadband, it is imperative that the Commission critically evaluate competition in the wireless market,” said Parul P. Desai, MAP Vice President.
“Considering the significant consolidation in the wireless market in recent years, the Commission must act to foster a healthy wireless market by discouraging anticompetitive activities,” Desai said. “Its failure to do so will result in continued barriers to innovation and consumer access to wireless broadband,” she said.
MAP is a non-profit, public interest law firm dedicated to promoting the public’s First Amendment right to access a diverse marketplace of ideas in mass media. For over 37 years, MAP has promoted the public interest before the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Courts, advocating for an open and diverse telecommunications system that protects the free flow of information, promotes universal and equitable access to communications and technology services, and encourages vibrant public discourse on critical issues facing our society.
Contact:
Kamilla Kovacs
Development and Communications Manager
Media Access Project
202-454-5685
kkovacs@mediaaccess.org