Text messaging rates have jumped 100 percent over the last three years and Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, wants to know why.The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust,
Competition Policy and Consumer Rights wants to know why text messaging rates
have jumped 100 percent since 2005.
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., on Sept. 9 wrote the
four largest wireless carriers in the United
States, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint
and T-Mobile, requesting that they explain the rate increases. Kohl said the
rate hike appeared to him to be unjustified by the costs associated with text
messaging services.
Instead, Kohl wrote, he thought the steep rates were more attributable to a
decrease in market competition and an increase in market power among the major
wireless carriers. In the last few years, the number of major national carriers
has declined from six to four and carriers continue to acquire smaller,
regional competitors.
"As chairman of the Antitrust Subcommittee, I am concerned with whether
this consolidation, and increased market power by the major carriers, has
contributed to this doubling of text messaging rates over the last three
years," Kohl wrote.
