Will the FCC's Next Wireless Competition Report Take Competition Seriously?

The FCC is soon expected to release its 16th Wireless Competition Report. Those reports are a useful resource of industry and consumer activities and trends in wireless services.

In a pair of Perspectives from FSF Scholars essays I have criticized the 14th and 15th Wireless Competition Reports.  The last two reports have not included any FCC overall assessment of whether or not the wireless market is "effectively competitive," though the statute's directive appears calls for such an assessment.  (Prior reports, including the 13th Wireless Competition Report, concluded that the wireless market is effectively competitive.)  Also, the last two reports have declined to take even a modest look at whether intermodal competition has competitive effects on wireless services and prices.  I expanded on the critiques offered in both Perspectives essays in a law review article I wrote for CommLaw Conspectus titled "Seeing Competition, Eyeing Regulation: FCC Wireless Policy Following the Fifteenth Report."

In the coming days we will see if the 16th Wireless Competition Report finally overcomes the defective aspects of its predecessors.