Justice Dept. Begins Peeking Into Exclusive Carrier Agreements
3:47 pm, July 6th, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
The United States Department of Justice has taken the first baby steps that could eventually lead to an official investigation of the Telecom industry and the effects its exclusive carrier agreements have on consumer prices and choices, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday.
The initial review looks to determine whether large U.S. telecom companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. have abused the market power they’ve amassed in recent years, according to people familiar with the matter.
Largely moribund and hamstrung by internal politics and inefficiency during the Bush administration, DOJ under President Barack Obama has seen renewed relevance as an arm of the Federal government and has lately signaled business as usual could soon be ending for an industry left to its own devices during the past decade or more.
Many people have long decried exclusive carrier agreements that make popular gadgets such as Apple’s iPhone available only to consumers willing to sign multi-year service agreements with AT&T and likewise Blackberry’s Storm to those who’d sign with Verizon.
The Wall Street Journal quoted the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, Christine Varney, saying she wants to “reassert the government’s role in policing monopolistic and anti-competitive practices by powerful companies.”
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, News, iPhone | Comment on this article
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anyone else thinking Varney is peeved cause she wanted to get an iphone but not cut her t-mobile account. then again, if it gets someone to consider what they have done in a few places overseas and make device locking illegal, who cares what the inspiration was.
i’m sure the folks at Apple would love to be able to just sell the phone full price. no activation nonsense. no folks arguing with them about deposits, subsidies etc.
Lucas, on July 6th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Go ahead waste our tax dollars on stupid Sh!t like this!!! Obama has already F-ed the United States up pretty good and real quick what a loser i guess this is the change he was talking about . Obama ” i promise that one day we will all have a iPhone and a BlackBerry” what a joke how about the government starts putting some of this money back that they are making there pockets fatter with. pretty soon we will be the 3rd world country!!!
morgan, on July 6th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
@Lucas, @morgan The iPhone may have prompted this but image a scenario where you could get your light bulbs only from your power company. They didn’t offer the brightness you wanted? Tough. Didn’t have the color you wanted? Oh well. This was the telecom industry of the 50s. Buy your phones from us or don’t get service. It kept phone prices high and features limited.
You can argue that now we have phones with more and more features, getting cheaper and cheaper. The only problem is that the true cost of the hardware is hidden behind the cost of the service. Hardware and software companies must form alliances to survive. Hardware prices fall to the point where there is almost no differentiation while service prices climb to make up for this discrepancy.
I’m not for the government stepping into any industry to regulate it, but this is one case where it is needed. Even printer manufactures can’t legally lock their printers to their ink cartridges. Why should mobile service be any different?
Holland, on July 7th, 2009 at 1:13 am
And also, it should be said that carries now dictate features. All People Should Try New Diet Pepsi.
Holland, on July 7th, 2009 at 1:20 am
“Largely moribund and hamstrung by internal politics and inefficiency during the Bush administration, DOJ under President Barack Obama has seen renewed relevance”.
I don’t really think your opinions on the previous and current presidents should be included in this article.
Chuck, on July 7th, 2009 at 6:37 am
@Chuck: Those are not my opinions; they are facts.
Lonnie Lazar, on July 7th, 2009 at 7:48 am
> Those are not my opinions; they are facts.
for those ignorant of the difference
anon@work, on July 7th, 2009 at 10:15 am