Tag: wireless market

Subcommittee Chairman Kohl warns of growing consolidation in wireless market.

In a letter to the country's four largest wireless carriers, the chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee asked why the text-messaging rates of each of the four providers had doubled in the last three years and warned that consolidation in the industry could be undermining competition.

Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., asked the chief executives of AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint why the big four appeared to be moving in lockstep in raising the per-message fee from 10 cents in 2005 to today's standard rate of 20 cents.

"Some industry experts contend that these increased rates do not appear to be justified by any increases in the costs associated with text-messaging services but may instead be a reflection of a decrease in competition and an increase in market power, among your four companies," Kohl wrote.