FCC’s 17th Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions With Respect to Mobile Wireless

The Federal Communications Commission released its Seventeenth Mobile Wireless Competition Report, an analysis of commercial mobile radio services (CMRS) integrated into an analysis of all mobile wireless services, including not only voice, but also messaging and broadband.

Consistent with the FCC’s first seven Reports, and the Fourteenth and subsequent Reports, this Seventeenth Report does not reach an overall conclusion or formal finding regarding whether or not the CMRS marketplace is effectively competitive, but provides an analysis and description of the CMRS industry’s competitive metrics and trends. Given the complexity of the various inter-related segments and services within the mobile wireless ecosystem, the FCC refrains from providing any single conclusion because such an assessment would be incomplete and possibly misleading in light of the variations and complexities the commission observed. Rather, the report focuses on presenting the best data available on competition throughout this sector of the economy, both at the regional and national level, and highlighting several key trends in the mobile wireless industry.