FCC stays neutral on whether wireless market is competitive

In its 16th report on the state of competition in the wireless market, the FCC struck the tone it has taken in the past two reports, noting that it "makes no formal finding as to whether there is, or is not, effective competition in the industry." The report, which covers data from 2010, 2011 and to a limited extent 2012, follows the same general analytical framework used in the previous two reports. The 338-page report notes that "given the complexity of the various inter-related segments and services within the mobile wireless ecosystem," it "focuses on presenting the best data available on competition throughout this sector of the economy and highlighting several key trends in the mobile wireless industry." The report, among many other findings, found that 80.4 percent of the U.S. population lives in an area with five or more wireless competitors, 92.8 percent of the population has access to four or more wireless competitors and 97.2 percent had access to three. Page