The FCC has released its 2024 Communications Marketplace Report, which assesses the state of competition across the communications marketplace and the state of deployment of communications capabilities. The report analyzes competition to deliver voice, video, audio, and data services among providers of telecommunications, providers of commercial mobile service, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), broadcast stations, providers of satellite communications, Internet service providers (ISPs), and other providers of communications services. The report also evaluates whether laws, regulations, regulatory practices, or marketplace practices pose a barrier to competitive entry into the communications marketplace or to the competitive expansion of existing providers of communications service.
In the report, the FCC specifically assesses: (1) the state of competition within the fixed broadband marketplace, the mobile wireless marketplace, and the voice services marketplace; (2) access to advanced telecommunications capability; (3) broadband adoption, affordability, and equitable access; (4) entry conditions in the communications marketplace; (5) Commission actions taken to close the digital divide, enhance competition, and encourage the deployment of communications services within the communications marketplace; and (6) the Commission’s future plans to further encourage and promote investment, innovation, deployment, and competition.
The FCC observes that: (1) overall, the U.S. communications marketplace has experienced significant changes in recent years, especially with respect to fixed broadband; (2) there are new technologies, including 5G fixed wireless and low-Earth orbit satellites, that provide options for consumers; (3) the Commission has acted to increase competition and protect consumers in the marketplace, by mandating easy-to understand consumer broadband labels, prohibiting digital discrimination of access, and reducing barriers to entry in apartment buildings; (4) there is increasing convergence between sectors of the wireless marketplace; and (5) the Commission has worked to increase competition in the space economy.
