Wireless Competition That AT&T and Verizon Need

March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Tantalizing reports that Americansmight soon be getting free nationwide wireless Internet access,courtesy of the Federal Communications Commission, have turnedout to be exaggerated. But wouldn’t we all welcome mobileconnectivity at a reasonable price? The FCC should take steps tomake that possible through competition in the wirelessmarketplace.

Right now, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. dominate themarket for wireless data as a duopoly, together accounting formore than two-thirds of all U.S. subscribers and most of thewireless industry’s profits. The other three of the five biggestmobile-phone companies -- Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA Inc.and MetroPCS Communications Inc. -- are small by comparison. Andthe big keep getting bigger: In the fourth quarter of 2012,while Verizon added a record 2.1 million subscribers to its baseof 90.4 million wireless retail subscriptions, and AT&T addedmore than three-quarters of a million subscribers to its 106million retail connections, Sprint, T-Mobile and MetroPCS alllost subscribers.