Report To Congress: Mobile Americans Like To Talk...A Lot

REPORT TO CONGRESS: MOBILE AMERICANS LIKE TO TALK... A LOT
[SOURCE: TelecomWeb]
The Federal Communications Commission will send Congress a report on "effective competition" in the mobile-telephony business with the probably well-known but interesting observation that American users apparently talk much more on their cellphones than do folks in other parts of the wireless world. The U.S. mobile base on average last year accounted for about 740 monthly minutes of use (MoU), according to the draft of the 11th annual report on commercial mobile radio services (CMRS) market conditions unanimously adopted by the FCC at its open meeting. The U.S. monthly MoU estimate compares with average MoU rates of 143 in Western Europe, 147 in Japan and 322 in South Korea, according to report. Further buttressing the growth of substituting wireless handsets for landline phones, the report -- often using industry-provided data -- says the 740-minute monthly figure reflects Americans on average adding about 120 minutes of time on a monthly basis from December 2004 to December 2005. Although Commissioner Michael Copps tends to question a somewhat elusive definition of "effective competition," the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau-compiled report says competitive conditions have improved during the past year by all its measures. This includes pricing value, technology improvements, product innovations, subscriber growth, usage patterns, churn, number of operators, service deployments and investment. According to the bureau, last year the mobile business added 28.3 million subscribers to its base to reach an estimated 213.3 million total (representing some 71 percent of the U.S. population) from about 185 million at the end of 2004. During that period, the report says average per-minute prices fell from 9 cents to 7 cents. In addition, the bureau report will tell federal lawmakers that 99 percent of the U.S. population live in counties with "some form of next-generation network deployment," while 98 percent have access to three or more wireless providers and 94 percent have the choice of four or more rival operators (a drop from five prior to last year's Sprint Nextel merger).
http://www.telecomweb.com/tnd/19451.html

* FCC Press Release
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267610A1.doc

* Commissioner Copps remarks
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-267610A3.doc