The Facts are in on Wireless Competition

The Federal Communications Commission’s 16th Wireless Competition Report is out and, as has been widely reported, the good news is abundant.

This year’s report achieves new analytical depth and breadth, and marshals an impressive picture of the U.S. wireless industry. Virtually everyone in the U.S. now has access to mobile voice and broadband service (99.9% and 99.5%, respectively), and 82% of Americans can choose from between at least four facilities-based mobile broadband providers. Investment in U.S. wireless networks is growing at a rate that is the envy of other countries, with total 2011 investment topping $25 billion and LTE deployments expanding rapidly. And U.S. consumers are reaping the competitive benefits. Americans are embracing smartphones in record numbers (67% chose smartphones in 2012), mobile data traffic continues its exponential growth, and unit prices, for both minutes and megabytes, are falling. In fact, the Report’s CPI analysis shows that U.S. wireless services are a bargain – since December 1997, the CPI for wireless services has declined by 40% while the overall CPI increased by nearly 40%. At bottom, the FCC’s own data decisively rebuts the argument that the U.S. is somehow falling behind other countries. That Big Lie has been peddled and pushed by some in order to justify more government control over the wireless industry – a goal rooted more in ideology than in any competitive concern or consumer outcry. It is also an argument pushed by some businesses that would rather compete through regulatory fiat than with investment and innovation. No longer can either argument withstand the overwhelming facts to the contrary.