FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:             News Media Contact:
  June 10, 1999                           Linda Paris at (202) 418-7121
  
       PRESS STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN WILLIAM E. KENNARD
                     ON "WIRELESS DAY"
                              
  Today we highlight one of the great success stories of competition   the wireless
  telecommunications industry, where choice is up and prices are down.
                              
  Wireless phone users are riding the wave of a tremendous buyers' market brought
  about by thriving competition in the wireless telecom field.  Consumers have more choices
  than ever at prices that have declined as much as 40 percent in the last three years.  It's
  amazing that an industry that didn't exist a decade ago now provides 134,758 jobs,
  according to an industry survey.
  
  Wireless is working like it should work   governed by the marketplace and not by
  regulation   and it is thriving. Common sense regulation by the FCC and Congress have
  helped foster the competitive nature of this industry.  In a competitive marketplace,
  excessive regulation can only handcuff the invisible hand, and wireless is a case study of
  achieving success through market forces instead of government. 
  
       All of the wireless items adopted today illustrate the steps the FCC is taking to
  help secure the wireless industry's role as a leader in communications technology.  We
  want to ensure that the competitive wireless industry finds its rightful place at the
  forefront of communications in the next millennium. 
  
     CMRS Competition Report:  The signs of growing competition are visible nearly
  everywhere.  For example, the mobile telephone industry is well on its way towards
  completing its transformation from a duopoly to a competitive marketplace.  Where there
  were once only two providers, there are now communities with five, six, and even seven
  carriers trying to sell their services.  As a result, prices are falling, making mobile
  telephone services available to more people as well, and bringing those services ever
  closer to being a competitive alternative to wireline telephone services. In the 12 months
  ending December 1998, the mobile telephony sector generated over $32 billion in
  revenues, increased subscribership from 55 million to 68 million, and increased national
  penetration from 20 to 25 percent.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
     Calling Party Pays: Because our focus today is on matters that affect and contribute to
  the growth of the wireless services, it is appropriate that we consider ways in which our
  regulation of wireless providers can help to create competition among wireless providers,
  as well as increase the choices available for wireless consumers.  There are two main
  reasons for implementing CPP.  First, it has the potential to make wireless services
  available to a whole new category of consumers: families on tight budgets who cannot
  afford mobile phones today, people who would otherwise turn off their phones to avoid
  having to pay for incoming calls, and students in college.  Second, it will help hasten the
  day when our wireless phone might very well be our only phone, when wireless is a real
  substitute for wireline.  With proper notification, CPP can potentially provide tremendous
  benefits to American consumers.
   
     Competitive Networks: If there is one thing we can all agree on, it is this: the rate at
  which local competition has been established in this country has been too slow. 
  Because facilities-based competition holds the greatest promise of surmounting obstacles
  to  local competition posed by incumbents' control of bottleneck facilities, we must take
  aggressive action to promote this competition.  This means that, in addition to promoting
  local competition resale and the leasing of unbundled network elements, we must also
  promote the development of facilities-based approaches, as also envisioned by Congress.
  It is especially appropriate that we focus attention on wireless solutions, since they present
  special promise for overcoming local bottlenecks.
  
     We also adopted additional items today that promote the competitive nature of
  wireless. In our Refarming/Trunking item, we adopted rules that encourage more effective
  and efficient use of the spectrum by private wireless users. We also adopted rules on our
  Universal Licensing System (ULS). ULS embodies our philosophy of making our
  operations simpler, faster, and more accessible to applicants, licensees, and the public. 
  Today, we furthered those goals by making our ULS database accessible to the public via
  the Internet. 
  
       At the FCC, we are hard at work to improve the ability of wireless providers to
  compete on equal footing with wireline providers.  Vigorous competition from the
  wireless industry will help reduce consumer prices and encourage innovation. Our
  objective at the FCC is to promote the continued growth of the wireless industry, which
  already has spawned a host of new services we couldn't have imagined even a decade ago. 
  
                                                       - FCC -