Senator John Kerry, D-MA, at a press conference in May. Kerry and three other senators have sent a letter to Michael J. Copps, acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, asking him to look at exclusive relationships between carriers and mobile phone manufacturers.
(Stephen Shaver/UPI/Newscom)Photos (1 of 1)
Senate showdown: Kerry takes aim at Apple’s exclusive deal with AT&T
By Matthew Shaer | 06.16.09
Let’s say you’re one of millions of Americans with a Verizon contract. Let’s say you really want an iPhone. And let’s say you don’t have hundreds of dollars necessary to break your contract, ditch your BlackBerry, and hop on board with AT&T. Right now, the whole furor over the 3G S is probably pretty frustrating, right?
Well, now you’ve got someone on your side.
Yesterday, Sen. John Kerry and three others on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation fired off a note to Michael J. Copps, the acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, asking Copps to look into exclusive arrangements between mobile phone manufacturers and national carriers.
The letter has drawn a lot of attention, mostly because it seems to be partly targeting one of the longest standing deals around – the one that gives AT&T the sole right to sell service for the iPhone.
The request, which was penned by Kerry and Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), precedes a Senate hearing this week on wireless service. Kerry is Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. The other three authors of the letter are all members of the same subcommittee.
“We ask that you examine this issue carefully and act expeditiously should you find that exclusivity agreements unfairly restrict consumer choice or adversely impact competition in the commercial wireless marketplace,” the senators wrote. Among the specific factors they suggested Copps address: “Whether exclusivity agreements are becoming increasingly prevalent between dominant wireless carriers and handset manufacturers.”
Writing on PC World’s website, Ian Paul noted that “some concerns spelled out by the senators sound like they’re a direct reaction to recent complaints over AT&T’s status as the exclusive U.S. provider for Apple’s iPhone. When last week Apple announced launch details for iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T was the target of scorn over delays to supporting the iPhone’s new tethering and MMS capabilities.”
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2. Vinnie | 06.16.09
This is high time someone examines this. This kind of deals didn’t make sense to me for over a decade. Outside of US, one can by phone from anywhere and subscribe to any carrier of choice. It is really strange that in the system of open competition (which we are proud of), such deals are overlooked by the regulators.
3. Kazimer | 06.16.09
The first thing is Apple won’t release a verizon iPhone at this point becuase verizon uses CDMA and it would require a large rewrite of the iPhone os code. Second, it is common for all carriers and phone makers to do have exclusivity on certain phones and at&t will lose it’s exclusivity within the USA in the next year or two and with all of the problems Apple has with at&t I don’t see this arrangement being renewed. So, by the time our govt. actually does something besides talk about it the contract will be up.
4. craig | 06.16.09
Maybe exclusive contracts are a little unfair but doesn’t the government have better things to worry about?
5. James Keven | 06.17.09
Consumer choices can mean more competition which is the basis of the free market system. When any market becomes so controlled by the size and the exclusivity rights and market dominance that some corporations are built on, this is not growth for the benefit or in the best interest of the consumer. It is self serving; and when in the end we the taxpaying consumers are forced to finance such corporate giants, as we are now doing, for their own mismanagement of their market place, doesn’t this mean the free market concept has been abused and basically raped? So, should we and our government representation be concerned about keeping the free market free? Are you kidding me? How is it not our responsibility to be very concerned?
6. Virgil | 06.17.09
Great this economy is in the tank and I voted Democrat this year and the best some dumb senator can do is be concerned about the Apple and AT&T deal with the iPhone.
Hey buddy how about you go back to Wall Street and crack the whip there and all those big wigs making bad banking deals and paying themselves millions after their companies tank.
How stupid, and lets look at a Monopoly which is against the law, an iPhone is a PDA, every carrier has some sort of PDA with some kind of touch screen. No Monopoly. Investigation complete, now if you can spend a couple hundred for a haircut Kerry you can kiss your Verizon contract and join AT&T and get your iPhone.
I love this why not go handle the gay equal rights problem, cause frankly if some gay person want to serve in the military I rather they go than me, and leave my cell phone the heck alone. GOOFY!!!
7. JimC | 06.17.09
This article got me thinking. . .
In a restaurant the other night I asked for a Coke and the waitress asked, “Is Pepsi ok?”
There are a lot of reataurants out there. Almost all of them have a choice of ONLY Pepsi or ONLY Coke.
Maybe we can get senator Kerry to take on these millions of restaurants and make them serve both Pepsi and Coke.
This would keep him busy and at the same time be an effective aid in keeping him out of Washington !
8. disposableidentity | 06.17.09
@ JimC, exactly.
That’s been an issue for 100 years. Let’s fix that exclusivity issue first. Give Apple/AT&T some time to figure out where this new hand-held computer (iPhone) market is going before we meddle in their arrangement.
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1. Markus | 06.16.09
How is it the responsibility of the government to make sure that everyone can have an iPhone if they want one?