|
|
|
|
In this edition of Views and News, ETI examines the rising tensions between electric utilities and communities over the deployment of SmartMeters. We also review the US Supreme Court Concepcion decision and its effect on the wireless industry. In light of Concepcion, we delve deeper into the issue of wireless market concentration and the AT&T/T-Mobile merger.
Read on below, or navigate over to
econtech.com
where you can read online, or download a
printer-friendly version.
|
|
As SmartMeter deployment expands, consumer skepticism and community opposition escalate
|
|
For some time now, energy policymakers and electric utilities have promoted the concept of a "smart grid" as an important energy conservation measure. The smart grid consists of two principal components – "SmartMeters" deployed at every customers' home and business premises, and a telecommunications network of some sort to interconnect those devices with the utility and in so doing maintain bi-directional contact on a real-time basis.
But is it really necessary for electric utilities to construct a special high-capacity two-way telecommunications networks in order to provide these capabilities?....
Continue reading at econtech.com
|
|
Supreme Court wipes out last vestige of consumer protection in the wireless market
|
|
The April 27 US Supreme Court decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion broadly eliminates the consumer protection of being permitted to sue collectively as a class when arbitration clauses and class action waivers are included in adhesion contracts. Separate and apart from its economywide implications, Concepcion literally stems from and directly affects the wireless telephone and data industry. Had the decision been handed down in 1985, the effect on wireless consumers might have gone largely unnoticed. Back then, wireless telephone service was quite expensive and was generally viewed as a luxury – only some 340,000 people had wireless phones nationwide.
Wireless services are no longer a luxury. There are now more than 302-million wireless phones in the US out of a total population of 311-million (i.e., a 97% penetration rate), and more than 26% of all US households have "cut the cord" and now rely on wireless as their only connection to the public telephone network. Whereas wireless started out as a luxury, it must now be viewed as an essential service, especially for the 80+ million Americans that are "wireless only." Yet this essential service remains unregulated, with the extent of consumer rights confined to the four walls of the substantively identical adhesion contracts being used by all major US wireless carriers....
Continue reading at econtech.com
|
|
Measuring Wireless Market Concentration
|
|
As we discussed last month (Views and News, March 2011), there are already ample reasons to be concerned about the competitive implications of the "AT&T&T" merger. Nationwide market concentration in the wireless industry already raises red flags in that it meets threshold levels specified in the Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission Horizontal Merger Guidelines. The Guidelines use the "Herfindahl-Hirschman Index" (HHI) as the measure of market concentration and potential market power. The increase in HHI that will result from the merger raises concentration levels even further. Our analysis was based on the national HHI values rather than those applicable in individual geographic markets because current "Economic Area" carrier subscriber data is not publicly available. As a general matter, it is nearly impossible for nationwide carrier market share data to overstate total concentration, as aggregating regional market shares for nationwide companies necessarily lowers HHI calculations and, as such, resulted in conservative HHI estimates. Right out of the gate, AT&T stated that national market share wasn't the proper way to examine the wireless marketplace, and that local markets should be examined on a case-by-case basis. We couldn't agree more....
Continue reading at econtech.com
|
|
|
|
About ETI. Founded in 1972, Economics and Technology, Inc. is a leading research and consulting firm specializing in telecommunications regulation and policy, litigation support, taxation, service procurement, and negotiation. ETI serves a wide range of telecom industry stakeholders in the US and abroad, including telecommunications carriers, attorneys and their clients, consumer advocates, state and local governments, regulatory agencies, and large corporate, institutional and government purchasers of telecom services. |
|
|
|
|
