Free State to FCC: Mobile Wireless Broadband is Substitute for Fixed

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The Free State Foundation says the Federal Communications Commission got it right in its 2017 Wireless Competition Report when it concluded that the mobile wireless broadband market is competitive. But the commission missed the mark when it did not conclude that mobile wireless broadband had become an effective substitute for fixed. Free State, a free market think tank focuses on communications issues, says that in the new report, the FCC should confirm its 2017 finding of effective competition, but also conclude that wireless is now an effective substitute or potential substitute, at least, for wireline. Free State points out that Congress asked the FCC to consider intermodal competition in the new report, so the FCC should definitely include an assessment of wireless/wireline substitution, an assessment that was lacking in the 2017 FCC report, it said. "Given the strong evidence of competition, consumer choice, declining prices, and technological dynamism, the Twentieth Report found, correctly, that the commercial mobile services market is effectively competitive. Recent trends certainly support reaffirmation of that finding in the Commission’s forthcoming competition report," Free State said.


Free State to FCC: Mobile Wireless Broadband is Substitute for Fixed