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Incoming FCC Chair Agrees to 'Review' Exclusive Phone Deals

Article Comments  40  

Jun 19, 2009, 11:42 AM   by Eric M. Zeman

Julius Genachowski, nominated to become chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has indicated that "if confirmed, I will ensure that the full record on the RCA petition is reviewed, and act accordingly to promote competition and consumer choice." The Rural Cellular Association (RCA) had petitioned the FCC to look into the exclusive deals between handset makers and cell phone network operators earlier this year. The issue gained more momentum recently when a handful of senators also asked the FCC to examine the issue. The RCA and senators involved believe that the exclusivity contracts may hinder consumer choice and may be an unfair practice. Genachowski, who made the above remarks in response to questions posed by the senators, has yet to be officially confirmed as the FCC chairman.

Reuters »

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justfinethanku

Jun 19, 2009, 2:43 PM

What if we want it the other way around?

I'm assuming that there are a few senaters out there that don't want to give up Verizon and switch to AT&T just to get the iPhone.

Q: What happens if the other carriers still refuse to carry a phone, even if the anti-exclusivity legislation is passed?

Are they going to then force every carrier to carry and subsidize every phone on the market to promote "choice"?

This is a free market, screw the FCC.
justfinethanku said:
This is a free market, screw the FCC.


Wrong. It is not a free market.

As long as wireless carriers' business models are entirely dependent upon use of public property (e.g. spectrum), then w...
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NokiaGoth

Jun 19, 2009, 2:38 PM

FCC needs to find somthing better to do

This is a waste of money and time. the RCA and these senators are just whining because they want an Iphone on someone elses network, they have not thought of the bigger picture. such as cost, if a cell phone maker has to make a phone compatible for all carriers, then costs will go up. do you all really want to spend even more money on phones? and we're not talking a small price hike, making a phone work on cdma and gsm, plus branding, ect ect it won't be pretty. but aparently the american public doesn't mind price hikes. If this is not bad enough, in my opinion this does the opisite of what they are saying it will do. Its taking away competition, and hurting business's.


NokiaGoth 😈
Although realistically...the price won't hike too much. There are several phones that can utilize CDMA and GSM and UMTS/HSDPA. The price is the same as other phones.
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WiWavelength

Jun 21, 2009, 12:38 PM

a simple summary...

This governmental look into handset exclusivity practices seems to be confusing many people who lack solid understanding of the situation. Here is a simple summary:

This IS NOT about forcing handset manufacturers to create all handsets for all carriers (e.g. IS NOT about requiring Apple to build a CDMA iPhone).

And this IS NOT about forcing all carriers to offer all handsets.

Instead, this IS about potentially allowing all carriers fair opportunity to offer all technologically compatible handsets which they elect to offer, thereby creating greater consumer choice.

This governmental review is happening because both Congress & the FCC are concerned that major carriers, especially VZW & AT&T, are using t...
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Well, well put.
 
 
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