Report says better monitoring could protect rural wireless carriers

Following concerns from rural wireless carriers, the Government Accountability Office issued a report last week recommending the Federal Communications Commission broaden the types of data it collects to monitor wireless competition. "The report authors expressed concern that industry consolidation has created a situation where four carriers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile — increasingly dominate the market," Joan Engebretson of Connected Planet reports. "As of 2009, those four carriers had 90.3% of all wireless subscribers, up from 85% in 2006."

"Industry consolidation has created some challenges for small and regional carriers to remain competitive," the GAO wrote. "These challenges include securing subscribers, making network investments and accessing handsets." The report also cited rural carriers' concerns about spectrum auction policies. "According to some small carriers and other stakeholders with whom we spoke, the size of spectrum blocks has had the effect of pricing small and regional carriers out of recent auctions, making it difficult for these carriers to enter into new markets or expand their services," the report said. The FCC took no position on the report.

To better monitor competition in the wireless industry, the report recommends FCC collect four additional types of data, including pricing, special access rates, capital expenditures and data about device and equipment costs. The Rural Cellular Association issued a release praising the new report. "RCA has urged the FCC to take immediate action on three policy issues that will help enhance and preserve competition in the wireless marketplace," Steven K. Berry, president and CEO of RCA, said in the statement. "These three actions include ending handset exclusivity, mandating data roaming and mandating interoperability across all paired bands of 700 MHz broadband spectrum," Engebretson writes. (Read more)