New America Foundation and Consumers Union Discuss Wireless Interoperability

The New America Foundation, in cooperation with the Consumers Union, gathered representatives from the leading wireless services providers and consumers groups to discuss how requiring mobile broadband service providers to interoperate would affect consumer choice and pricing.

Currently, most mobile phones work with only a single network provider. After consumers end their contracts with a network provider, they are unable to use the phone on competing networks, even if the competitor uses the same mobile technology. “As the mobile industry becomes increasingly consolidated, interoperability between technologies will allow consumers to more freely move amongst the providers,” said Parul Desai, Communications Policy Counsel at the Consumers Union. Desai cited a recent survey conducted by the Consumers Union that found more than 80 percent of respondents wanted to be able to change their networks but keep their devices. Consumer groups, along with the wireless company Sprint have urged the Federal Communications Commission to mandate fourth generation wireless devices, which use the same band of spectrum to broadcast, be interoperable with each other. This would allow consumers to use a single device across different carriers as long as they use the same transmission technology, be it Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax.