Wireless Group Shifts Stance On Municipal Broadband

[SOURCE: Technology Daily, AUTHOR: Drew Clark]
CTIA - The Wireless Association is making known its policy priorities for the next year and surprised some by announcing it is not opposed to competition from city-sponsored, unlicensed wireless ventures. "As our technology and our world has evolved, licensed and unlicensed [wireless] converge, and our members are a part of it," said Senior Vice President Michael Altschul. The group seeks to pre-empt state regulation of wireless, reduce taxation, and reform the $7.1 billion universal service fund designed to subsidize phone service to rural and low-income areas. Strong competition in the wireless industry means that many telecommunications rules need not apply to it, CTIA Chief Executive Officer Steve Largent said. He used several statistical benchmarks to contrast the situation in 2006 from 1993, when a law to balance the budget instituted spectrum auctions and launched the industry's success. In 1993, there were 13 million wireless subscribers, versus 200 million today. In 1993, the average bill was $67 per month, versus $49 today. In 1993, consumers talked an average of 121 minutes a month, versus 689 today.
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