State of Competition in the Wireless Industry

STATE OF COMPETITION IN THE WIRELESS INDUSTRY
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
The Federal Communications Commission released its Twelfth Annual Report to Congress on the state of competition in the mobile telephone - or Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) - industry. The FCC concluded that there is effective competition in the CMRS marketplace. The report demonstrates that U.S. consumers continue to experience significant benefits - including low prices, new technologies, improved service quality, and choice among providers - from competition in the CMRS marketplace. The FCC finds that 1) Approximately 280 million people, or 99.8 percent of the U.S. population, have one or more different operators offering mobile telephone service in the census blocks in which they live. 2) More than 95 percent of the U.S. population lives in areas with at least three mobile telephone operators competing to offer service. 3) More than half of the U.S. population lives in areas with at least five competing mobile telephone operators. 4) Approximately 99.3 percent of the U.S. population living in rural counties, or 60.6 million people, have one or more different operators offering mobile telephone service in the census blocks within the rural counties in which they live. 5) Approximately 82 percent of the U.S. population lives in census blocks with at least one mobile broadband provider offering service.
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-279986A1.doc

* Read the report
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-08-28A1.pdf