@jbtaylor on tech

If you were to do a quick search for news stories about the FCC today, you'd probably assume that the most important regulatory news coming out of the Federal Communications Commission was news that Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay $25 million to the federal government and to refund $52 million to its customers to settle charges about the company's "mystery fees." Verizon had been under investigation for incorrectly collecting and charging its customers fees for data never accessed on wireless phones.

Surely, that's big news, but it's not the biggest news to come from the FCC today.

A much bigger story is that the FCC issued a public notice in the special access docket which requests data from incumbent local exchange carriers and commercial mobile radio service providers.

How's that for telecom gobbledygook?

In English, what it means is the FCC is asking landline and wireless phone companies to provide confidential data about the prices charged and paid for special access connections. This request for data is a necessary step to take before the FCC can do anything to rein in Verizon, AT&T and other landline phone companies who dominate the special access market which our broadband economy depends upon.

As I've written in this Posterous before, special access circuits are the connections that wireless companies depend upon to connect your wireless call and to make sure your smartphone can surf the Web. Special access also connects your bank's ATM, the credit card payment system at a retail store like Wal-Mart or Best Buy and also the 1-800 reservations centers used by hotels, airlines and the like. It's also how your Internet service provider connects you to this or any other Website and how your email gets delivered.

The special access market is worth about $18 billion a year and it's a broken market. In economic terms that means there is no competition which pressures prices downward.

In the Washington, D.C. area, where I live and work, Verizon controls about 90 percent of the special access market. This means they can charge prices which are jacked up as much as 100 percent over their actual cost.

I call it Verizon's ATM machine.

Today's news about the FCC data request is a clear sign that the FCC is serious in enforcing the law and taking action in the special access docket.

Personally, I welcome it.

At Sprint, we issued the following statement to media about the FCC's step:

"Today’s announcement by the Federal Communications Commission that it is issuing a request for data about the special access market is an important milestone in the Commission’s efforts to fix this broken market. We would like to thank Chairman Genachowski, his fellow Commissioners and the FCC staff for their work to address this problem facing the country’s broadband economy.

Sprint has repeatedly indicated that it will provide the data the FCC needs to make a fact-based, data driven decision in this docket. Because the nation’s broadband economy depends upon these special access circuits, it is essential that the Commission get accurate and timely data from both purchasers and sellers of special access. We urge other communications companies to join with Sprint in fully cooperating with the FCC as it acts in addressing the matters pending in the docket.”

David Pogue is a technology columnist at the New York Times and generally his reviews are helpful to readers. Tonight the Times has published Pogue's take on the HTC EVO 4G and the review doesn't cover a lot of new ground. He loves the big screen, the fast processor and hates the battery life.

Fair enough.

What I take exception with is his characterization of the parts of the U.S. where Sprint offers Sprint 4G.

Pogue writes:

"...I couldn’t find any 4G reception, even in weeks of traveling. My problem, evidently, was that I was visiting major cities like New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. So far, Sprint has installed 4G coverage in only 32 areas — and they’re bustling metropolises like Boise, Idaho; Wichita Falls, Tex.; High Point, N.C.; and Milledgeville, Ga."

Ouch.

Mr. Pogue's correct that Sprint hasn't yet launched 4G in New York, Boston and San Francisco. But we have launched 4G in Chicago and several other major cities including: Seattle, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Charlotte and Raleigh. I would consider these places "major cities", yet Pogue calls them "lucky hamlets."

I should also point out that we offer Sprint 4G to 42 million Americans -- that's 42 million more people than can get 4G from AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile. We expect to cover 120 million people with 4G goodness by the end of the year. (Currently we offer 4G to five of the nation's top ten cities.)

But that's apparently lost on Pogue. It's easier to make a snide remark about smaller communities in Idaho, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia than it is to accurately characterize our coverage map.

I should have a thicker skin, but it stings a little to read the "bustling metropolises" crack.

I'm proud to say I'm from a small community in North Carolina -- Winston-Salem -- which is one of the first communities where Sprint launched 4G. It's right next door to High Point and Greensboro. Together, they are part of the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina, the country's 30th largest metro area and home to 1.6 million people.

I hope I'm wrong about Pogue's intentions -- he surely didn't mean to imply that somehow North Carolinia is "bucolic" or perhaps undeserving of a faster mobile Internet. But it certainly would have been more fair to his readers in New York and elsewhere to let them know that Sprint has already announced plans to bring Sprint 4G to the Big Apple later this year. We're also coming to Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and a whole host of smaller "bustling metropolises".

I'm sure Pogue travels a lot with his work. Maybe we can persuade him to visit some of our 4G markets so he can see for himself what a faster mobile Internet means for consumers. Or perhaps he can wait until we roll out Sprint 4G in New York.

We'll see.