Staying one fix ahead of regulation

LAS VEGAS--FCC Chairman Kevin Martin got it right when he said that the wireless industry is a victim of its own success.

In his CTIA keynote speech today, Martin noted that consumer expectations for the wireless industry continue to grow.

That’s very true -- we as consumers are no longer satisfied with poor call quality, indecipherable bills, stacks of extra charges, spotty coverage and clueless customer service -- not that wireless carriers as a group are guilty of all of that.

CTIA Chairman Lowell McAdam also got it right when he said the industry has to be prepared to change some of its policies and practices if it wants to avoid regulation at the hand of state commissioners in each of the 50 states.

The thing is, the wireless industry has, to a great extent, gotten the hard part done. In its 25-year-history, it has, as McAdams said, already gone through three generations of technology, embraced broadband data and applications such as mobile video and gaming, listened to consumers when they wanted to be able to port their phone numbers and change their ring tones, and generally evolved at about as rapid a pace as an industry can be expected to maintain.

Over the past year, the industry has also embraced openness, a concept previously foreign to the world’s most vertically integrated technology industry.

The issues that regulators are now addressing are often the ones that make consumers nuts -- rigid contract terms that extend the term of service with any change and penalize the consumer for early departures, sloppy customer service, bills that nickel and dime consumers.

All of those things are fixable without the kind of investment that the current 4G push is requiring.

As McAdams noted, there is some inconsistency on the regulators’ part that makes the industry’s job harder. On the one hand, there are complaints about lack of coverage while on the other, local governments layer restriction after restriction on tower sites. While regulators champion the consumer’s right to understand their bills and eliminate unnecessary fees and charges, local and state governments impose their own taxes and fees. In Chicago, McAdams pointed out, a 20.5% tax includes an 18% city surcharge, which is an arbitrary charge well above the rate for other services.

But the CTIA Chairman got it right, when he said it’s up to the wireless industry, which has met so many other challenges, to meet this one as well. Failing to do so will come back to bite wireless service providers, their vendors and their customers as well.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.