U.S. Investigating AT&T and Verizon Over Wireless Collusion Claim

Apparently, the Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into potential coordination by AT&T, Verizon and a telecommunications standards organization to hinder consumers from easily switching wireless carriers. In Feb, the Justice Department issued demands to AT&T, Verizon and the GSMA, a mobile industry standards-setting group, for information on potential collusion to thwart a technology known as eSIM, apparently. 

The technology lets people remotely switch wireless providers without having to insert a new SIM card into a device. AT&T and Verizon face accusations that they colluded with the GSMA to try to establish standards that would allow them to lock a device to their network even if it had eSIM technology.

The investigation was opened about five months ago after at least one device maker and one wireless carrier filed formal complaints with the Justice Department, apparently. At the heart of the investigation is whether the nation’s biggest wireless carriers, working with the GSMA, secretly tried to influence mobile technology to unfairly maintain their dominance, in a way that hurt competition and consumers and hindered innovation in the wider mobile industry.