Today, I issued the following statement after the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet's hearing on the "Universal Service Reform Act of 2009." The bill is sponsored by Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Representative Lee Terry (R-NE):

"CTIA welcomes the effort by Chairman Boucher and Congressman Terry to reform the way that universal service funds are collected and distributed. As this bill moves forward, we urge Congress to work toward competitively neutral reforms that target support to where it is truly needed."

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.  

In yesterday’s blog post, I summarized our FCC reply comment filing  on the wireless industry’s continued innovation and investment.

Despite overwhelming evidence from independent organizations that clearly prove the U.S. wireless industry is a worldwide leader in innovation, investment and meeting consumer demands, there are still some naysayers out there. So for those critics, today’s post is for you.

You may recall the flawed OECD Communications Outlook report released in August by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that claimed U.S. wireless consumers have the highest mobile phone costs. We issued a statement that outlined why the OECD figures are wrong. 

But don’t just take our word for it. Check out this Forbes.com article by former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James Glassman, who simply states:  “Don’t believe it.” 

Mr. Glassman continues saying that the OECD report is "deeply flawed" and "its startling conclusion essentially worthless."

He concludes his piece with, “Despite the findings of the flawed OECD study, what European consumers need is more rigorous, American-style competition in telecommunications.” 

We couldn’t agree more, Mr. Glassman.

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.

In a Hillcon Valley blog post on Monday, Ruth Milkman, FCC's Wireless Bureau chief said, "There is tremendous agreement that wireless is vibrant and contributes to the economy. It’s a phenomenal set of services and applications."
 
We couldn't agree more. While we may be a bit biased, I think all of us have been impressed by some wireless app, device, technology, etc. As I mentioned in yesterday's post on our filing to the FCC on innovation and investment, this is an industry that is responsive to consumers and fiercely competes with one another for each customer. 
 
In CTIA's wireless competition filing to the FCC , we highlight numerous examples of how the wireless ecosystem (made up of carriers, infrastructure suppliers, device manufacturers, operating system providers, and applications developers) remains competitive at every level.
 
This means that consumers and businesses are benefiting from the lowest prices, highest minutes of use, most innovative services and devices, most robust mobile broadband networks, and least concentrated wireless market among our global competitors.
 
But this fiercely competitive state of the mobile industry was no accident: it emerged from long-standing, market-driven policies, embraced on a bipartisan basis, favoring flexibility over command-and-control and competition over economic regulation.
 
Finally, we also highlighted additional steps (starting on page 77) that the Commission can take to facilitate on-going competition and ensure that consumers will continue to reap tremendous benefits from the mobile wireless sector. 
 
After all, as John Donovan, AT&T’s CTO said in his keynote at CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment Show last week, “It’s a customer’s world; we’re just a part of it.”

To kick off the first day at International CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2009®, we released our Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey. 

While you can read the specifics about the survey, I thought I’d highlight a few interesting statistics that clearly demonstrate the wireless industry’s continued growth:

Wireless data service revenues for the first half of 2009 climbed to more than $19.4 billion—a 31% increase from the first half of 2008.

• There are more than 276 million wireless subscribers.
• More than 740 billion text messages were reported for the first half of 2009—breaking down to 4.1 billion messages per day— which is nearly double the amount of texts reported for the first half of 2008. 
• 1.1 trillion minutes were used in the first half of 2009—breaking down to 6.4 billion minutes-of-use per day.
• More than 246 million data-capable devices are in the hands of consumers today.  More than 40 million of these devices are Smartphones or wireless-enabled PDAs and more than 10 million are wireless-enabled laptops, notebooks or aircards.

This impressive industry growth wouldn’t be possible without the fiercely competitive and innovative wireless marketplace where companies continue to rise to the challenge to meet consumer demand. I’m looking forward to visiting our exhibitors this week to see this incredible innovation on display.

If you would like to learn more, please listen to our podcast with Dr. Robert Roche, CTIA’s VP of Research who elaborates on our mid-year survey's key findings & discusses the industry’s continued growth.

The FCC is interested in learning more about the wireless industry's competitiveness, innovation, and billing practices. CTIA President & CEO Steve Largent discusses the association's eagerness to share the great wireless story with the Commission, and emphasizes the need for additional spectrum to satisfy the growing consumer demand for wireless data services. To learn more watch this segment from our September installment of our Wonder of Wireless webcast, and take a few moments to see what else we have to offer in our September WOW.