While it was not a comprehensive survey, the results do describe state interest in wireless regulation. The first survey question, for example, asked: does your state regulate wireless services and, if it does, to what extent.
Twenty-one of the 35 states that responded indicated that they did not in any way regulate the wireless industry. These responses applied to all regulatory entities within the states and not simply the utility commissions, but excluded state legislative bodies.
According to the survey, the 21 responding states that did not, as of 2003, regulate wireless carriers included: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ore-gon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming and Minnesota.
Minnesota? Remember the 8th Circuit Court decision? While that state’s regulatory agency might not oversee wireless, its legislature, like most others in the United States, has considered various wireless-related proposals. While federal courts will have the last word on whether such legisla-tion passes judicial muster, there is still considerable disagreement amongst state regulators as to the degree of involvement such agencies should have with wireless issues.
Florida, for example, has never done much in the way of regulating wireless.
“Our legislature has told us to take a hands off approach (to wireless),” says Katrina Tew, a commissioner with the Florida Public Service Commission in Tallahassee. “Our role is eco-nomic regulation, and wireless is a very competitive industry in Florida. We have over 20 carriers in the state. A 2004 study showed that we had about 13 million wireless subscribers, almost 2 million more than wireline.”
(Editor’s Note: All of the commissioners interviewed for this article emphasize that they are speaking for themselves and not on behalf of their state commissions.)
Even those state regulators who do regulate wireless believe they are doing so in a more limited fashion than in the past: “Most wireless regulation is at the federal level,” says Anne C. Boyle, Commissioner of the Nebraska Public Service Commission in Lincoln.
Boyle’s Commission service dates back a decade to the time when wireless was just beginning to take off and she believes strict scrutiny was necessary. “Back then there were many consumer problems,” she says. “Some, for example, related to long-term contracts. You signed a two-year contract and whether the phone worked or not, you were stuck with a two-year contract.
