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The US mobile telephone market faces a shake-up after authorities set new rules for auctioning airwaves, boosting users’ freedom to switch providers and access the Internet by phone. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the rules to come into force next January, when auctions are due to be held for certain airwaves. They will open up access for consumers to use nearly any wireless device they like to use broadband services and switch mobile telephone service providers without having to buy a new hand set. The FCC said it had adopted a revised plan for the 700 MHz band spectrum, which is currently occupied by television broadcasters but will be abandoned in the country’s switch to digital television in 2009.

The measures will shake up the US market, where mobile phone service providers can restrict the type of handset their subscribers use by applying exclusive standards. FCC chairman Kevin Martin says US consumers too often have to buy a new phone if they want to switch. This reduces competition between telephone companies and limits users’ ability to access the Internet using their phone.

A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed fewer than half mobile phone users in the United States had access to Internet services via phone, behind Europe and Japan and other countries. “US wireless carriers today control which cell phones may connect to their networks, as well as the features and functions that will work on them,” said the CCIA in a statement welcoming the new FCC regulations. “Thanks to today’s (FCC) Report and Order, wireless customers will have the right to use any compatible wireless device and any mobile broadband application on at least one future wireless network.”

The FCC said that under the new rules, areas which were previously shunned by private operators because they required heavy investment while offering few potential customers, would be opened up to broadband Internet.

The long-range 700 Mhz band requires fewer transmitters, so it is also less expensive to install a network.

Mobile telephone companies currently spend some 1.5 billion dollars a year, according to the market research company eMarketer. This has drawn the interest of the Internet search giant Google, which is in talks with telephone makers and service providers over a possible move into the airwaves market.

Source: Yahoo news

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