The FCC will vote on a broad inquiry into wireless industry competition this month. The FCC is likely to put AT&T and Verizon under the regulatory microscope, says ZDNet.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has asked fellow commissioners to vote approval for a broad inquiry into wireless industry practices at the agency’s Aug. 27 meeting.
Three proposed Notices of Inquiry are on the menu.
- A “truth-in-billing” investigation that will ask “whether there are opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services,”
- A notice on the state of competition in wireless,
- An inquiry into “concrete steps” the FCC can take to “encourage innovation and investment” in the field.
In a notice (pdf), the FCC said it will “consider a Notice of Inquiry to seek to understand better the factors that encourage innovation and investment in wireless and to identify concrete steps the Commission can take to support and encourage further innovation and investment in this area.”
The agency probably will look for evidence that AT&T and Verizon, which have a combined 60 percent of the U.S. market, engage in anti-competitive behavior, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a Washington communications attorney who has followed the FCC for more than 30 years.
In addition, the FCC is looking for “opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services.”
The meeting will come four workdays after today’s deadline for Apple, AT&T, and Google to respond to letters from the FCC asking why Apple nixed the Google Voice application for the iPhone, notes ArsTechnica.
Meanwhile, many of the large broadband providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon Communications have decided not to apply for stimulus funds, reports Marguerite Reardon. The first round of proposals were due today. While some of these companies, like Verizon, said months ago they would not apply for funds, some experts believe that stipulations announced in July requiring recipients to adhere to Net neutrality principles may have kept some of these big operators from throwing their hats into the ring.
