Today, I issued the following statement after appearing on a panel at the FCC's Distracted Driving Staff Workshop:

"We appreciated the opportunity to discuss this important issue at the FCC. 

"Over the last few months, CTIA and our members have participated in several Congressional hearings, developed a teen-focused anti-texting and driving campaign, and spoken with numerous stakeholders to discuss ways our industry can help stop distracted driving.

“I want to reiterate our support of bans on manual texting and emailing while driving. We also believe in mobile device restrictions for teen and novice drivers so they can better focus on learning how to be better drivers. 

"We support technological advancements, but caution that they cannot be based on inflexible mandates that could stifle innovation. They must also be affordable and consumer-friendly.

"Finally, we will continue our focus on educating drivers of all ages about safe driving and responsible wireless use. Most recently, CTIA partnered with the National Safety Council this year to release our teen-focused ‘On the Road, Off the Phone’ campaign with a TV public service announcement and Web site.

“CTIA and our members look forward to working with the FCC as well as other policymakers and stakeholders at all levels to address the dangers of distracted driving."

For more information about the CTIA and NSC "On the Road, Off the Phone" campaign, please visit: www.onroadoffphone.org.

Have you ever wondered how CTIA picks its speakers for our tradeshows? Or perhaps you’ve thought, “Gee, I’d make a great speaker/moderator/panelist.” 

Today, we issued a Call for Speakers for our spring trade show taking place March 22-25, 2010 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

We’re accepting submissions beginning today until December 11, 2009 from experienced and innovative company executives and members of the media. 

CTIA’s educational sessions highlight the important topics, trends and policy issues that are affecting the wireless ecosystem. Thousands of show attendees go to these sessions to learn from the valuable experiences of seasoned industry executives from trendsetting companies as they share their knowledge and understanding of wireless solutions, key applications, implementation approaches and experiences, best practices and case studies. 

Some of the proposed educational session topics for International CTIA WIRELESS 2010 include:

• Augmented Reality
• Intelligent Transportation
• Location Aware Applications
• mHealth Solutions
• Mobile Marketing & Advertising
• Mobile Music & Games
• Retail and Mobile Payments

You can submit an application or get more information on the application process at:  www.ctiaspeakers.com.

Texting and driving don't mix, and CTIA supports laws that make texting while driving illegal. Learn more about the industry's safe driving positions and watch our new public service announcement aimed at helping parents to tell their teens, when you're on the road, get off the phone. To learn more watch this segment from our November installment of our Wonder of Wireless webcast, and take a few moments to see what else we have to offer in this month's WOW.

On this month's WOW we took a trip down a mountain with Michael McKinney a resident of Lake Tahoe, CA. When a snowstorm dumped an enormous amount of fresh powder on the nearby ski slopes, McKinney & his friends couldn't wait to get out and hit the trails last year, but McKinney wound up lost & in serious trouble, until his cell phone came to the rescue. To learn more watch this segment from our November installment of our Wonder of Wireless webcast, and take a few moments to see what else we have to offer in this month's WOW.

In my blog post yesterday, I mentioned the misleading OECD Mobile Communications Outlook report that claimed U.S. consumers pay some of the highest prices for mobile services in the world. While we clearly explained what the problems were with the study, we were pleased to see others engage and refute its findings. 

Another telecommunications expert who debunked the study is the Phoenix Center’s Chief Economist, Dr. George Ford. Dr. Ford commented on the OECD’s mobile price metrics in a recent policy perspective report. 

Here are some of Dr. Ford’s recommendations to improve the OECD’s analysis:

• At a minimum, the OECD should expand the number of pricing baskets to reflect usage levels across countries. The high-usage basket should be at least 2,000 total voice minutes per month.
• To the extent possible, the OECD should incorporate the full distribution of usage (or usages) in Member Countries rather than looking at a few customer types.
• The OECD should include a sufficient number of carriers to adequately represent the best prices available in a given country for all usage levels, instead of its current practice of limiting only to a few arbitrarily selected carriers in each Member Country.
• The OECD should explicitly recognize the complexities of comparing mobile prices across countries, including economic, cultural, and regulatory differences that affect demand and prices. As Dr. Ford explains, for “the data to be used wisely and effectively, the report should clearly disclose the limitations of reported statistics to enable accurate interpretation.”
• Finally, Dr. Ford recommends that the OECD should primarily document the variety of pricing plans offered in each country, “rather than create price indexes of dubious merit.” In so doing, the OECD can “serve as a useful and policy-relevant provider of data, rather than a purveyor of ‘filtered’ data of questionable credibility.”

CTIA agrees with Dr. Ford’s conclusion that Americans do not pay higher prices for wireless service. 

As avid readers of this blog know, we’ve written numerous posts using information from well-respected third party influentials and organizations on how the U.S. wireless industry is the world’s leader in overall satisfaction, value, competition and innovation. We’re pleased everyone from Former Vice President Al Gore to Consumer Reports magazine has recognized the industry’s numerous benefits. To learn more about what others are saying about us, check out this independent assessment.  

Last Thursday (11/5), CTIA filed reply comments  to the FCC on the wireless industry’s innovation and investment.    

As we have seen in the last 18 months, the U.S. wireless ecosystem has experienced tremendous change. The industry has embraced the evolution of networks to 3G and now 4G technologies, the explosion of innovative devices, the emergence of application stores, and new machine-to-machine communications.

Specifically, we’ve seen:

• 3G technology has been deployed to more than 92% of the U.S. population;
• At least 33 companies manufacture wireless devices for the U.S. market, and consumers can choose from nearly 630 wireless devices.
• More than 85% of all devices on carriers’ networks are Web-capable and 20% of new devices are equipped with Wi-Fi capability. According to Nielsen, the percentage of consumers actively using mobile Internet capabilities in the U.S. is higher than any other country.
• Well over 100,000 mobile-specific applications have come to the market from six different stores;
• Reported minutes of use (“MOUs”) amounted to 1.16 trillion for the six months ending in June 2009, which is the highest minutes-of-use per month and the lowest price-per-minute of service of the 26 OECD countries tracked by Merrill Lynch.
• Reported SMS messages for the six-month period totaled more than 740 billion, nearly doubling the 385 billion reported for the same period in 2008;
• For the twelve months ending June 2009, providers reported making capital investments totaling $19.5 billion;
• Providers added over 25,000 new cell sites, up 11.5% over the prior year.

CTIA’s most recent data confirms that, despite these challenging economic times, wireless carriers continue to invest and innovate in their networks while consumers adopt and demand the latest wireless services, devices, and applications. This aggressive consumer adoption only serves to fuel the continued virtuous cycle of the wireless ecosystem.

Today I testified before the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittees on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and on Communications, Technology and the Internet in a joint hearing called “Driven To Distraction: Technological Devices and Vehicle Safety.”

While you can read my testimony  and the statement, here are some of the key points. We believe there are three components to making safer drivers and safer roads. They are:

• Legislation:  The wireless industry joins Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in supporting a state and local ban on manual texting and emailing while driving. In fact, we are working with the National Conference of State Legislatures, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and other state organizations to craft model legislation that could be adopted across the country that would prohibit this activity. In addition, the industry supports restrictions on provisional or novice drivers from using their wireless devices while driving. 
• Technology:  We support technological advancements, but caution that they cannot be based on inflexible mandates that could stifle innovation. They must also be affordable and consumer-friendly.
• Education:  Last, but most importantly, CTIA and the wireless industry have a longstanding commitment and support to educating all drivers about the dangers of distracted driving. For almost 10 years, the association and many of our members have independently developed educational campaigns. We’ve launched several TV and radio public service announcement (PSA) campaign on safe driving. Most recently, CTIA and the National Safety Council launched our teen-focused “On the Road, Off the Phone” campaign. 

Please tell everyone you know that no one should be texting and emailing while driving. It will lead to safer drivers and safer roads for all of us.

Today, CTIA’s Executive Vice President Bobby Franklin issued the following statement after his testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit hearing on "Addressing the Problem of Distracted Driving":
 
"CTIA and the wireless industry appreciated the opportunity to participate at the House hearing on this very important issue. With so many Americans relying on mobile devices as a great safety tool, it's important to remind consumers that there is an appropriate time and inappropriate time to use them.
 
"Legislation, technology and education are three vital components that we believe are needed to develop safer drivers and safer roads. CTIA believes that manual texting and emailing while driving are incompatible with safe driving and join Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in supporting a state and local ban on this activity. In fact, we are working with the National Conference of State Legislatures, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and other state organizations to craft model legislation that could be adopted across the country that would prohibit manual texting and emailing while driving.
 
"We also support technological advancements, but caution that they cannot be based on inflexible mandates that could stifle innovation. They must also be affordable and consumer-friendly.
 
"Finally, we are proud of our long-standing educational activities, including our recent partnership with the National Safety Council to launch a teen-focused campaign, ‘On the Road, Off the Phone.' As part of the campaign, we developed a Web site and a television public service announcement which has been viewed thousands of times since we launched last month.
 
"CTIA and our members look forward to continuing to work with policymakers and stakeholders at all levels to combat distracted driving."
 
For more information about the CTIA and NSC "On the Road, Off the Phone" campaign, please visit: www.onroadoffphone.org.