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Does Size Look Evil or Something Else ?
by Andrew McCaskey
AT&T and Verizon in the CrossHairs
The Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are itching for a fight, and it looks like AT&T and Verizon are going to stick their hands into the fire and see how hot it really is. That is probably not a good idea with a new regulatory regime and a Congress looking for an easy political win.Â
There are few issues that are easy to understand – or to convince the public that they understand – than cellphone and wireless data issues. That’s one reason that the failure of Verizon and AT&T to loosen up on a few areas is going to get them into trouble.Â
For visibility, you can hardly find a closer to home issue (with little real but high perceived damage) than SMS message charges. Most consumers are on some sort of plan that allows for a large number of SMS messages at low cost. But, if you aren’t the apparent price fixing and price gouging on a per message basis over the past few years is sure to make the blood boil. Of course, billions of anything is of interest to someone and represents a lot of money. That is why the carriers have not loosened their grip.Â
On the other hand, it might make sense to offer some more flexibility in the handset tying agreements (such as the AT&T and iPhone hardware) to keep the SMS monopoly pricing going.
The sheer size of Verizon and AT&T market dominance makes them suspect. And they wouldn’t be unfairly accused of being evil if they didn’t look so… .evil
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