Do You Believe This?

I don’t…

From the “Wireless Industry’s Daily Monitor” (which ought to say “something.”);

FCC: 98% of U.S. has choice of 3 carriers

“According to the FCC’s annual wireless competition report, 98 percent of Americans in 2006 had three or more carrier options, while 94 percent had four or more carriers to choose from. The number of counties with five or more carriers servicing them, however, was only 59 percent. In 2004 some 87 percent of counties in the U.S. had five or more carriers servicing them, while the number dropped to 51 percent in 2005. During 2004 and 2005 Sprint and Nextel merged, Verizon and MCI merged and AT&T bought Cingular. The FCC remains pleased with the results of the study and claimed that recent open access rules on the C Block of the 700 MHz auction would only add to the level of competition in the industry.”

Here’s the complete FCC report. Read it through and see if you don’t notice or think about how much has changed in a short time. Why do these outfits perceive us as ignorant of reality?

One quip from the report;

“The report demonstrates that U.S. consumers continue to experience significant benefits – including low prices, new technologies, improved service quality, and choice among providers – from competition in the CMRS marketplace.”

Low prices??? Choice among providers??? Improved service quality???

Yes, damn right they perceive us all as ignorant…