The FCC announced its Wireless Innovation and Investment Notice of Inquiry (NOI) late August, catching mobile agencies in a spindle of perplexity and enthusiasm.
Stating that their intent is to merely gather facts about the wireless industry, the FCC will be focusing on research, innovation, and consumer protection (truth-in-billing). In other words, they will be looking at things such as mobile applications, policies, pricing information, consumer privacy, market competition, third party products and services and even what user phone bills look like. Conclusively the FCC wants to figure out their role in our evolving mobile ecosystem while also making sure that the mobile world is utilizing all current innovations and pushing for new state of the art technology.
Their interest in developing a framework for analyzing and measuring innovation in the mobile industry, however, seems farfetched, seeing as mobile is one of the most innovative classes of business. With a touch of a handset, anyone can go anywhere with his or her mobile GPS, surf the web with countless pages as options and update in real-time, receive alerts regarding weather, sports, health and much more. Consumer demands of mobile content and applications drive the mobile industry to new heights; and in return, the delivery of such content and applications satisfy consumer needs, creating a circle of daily deliverance of creativity and modern technology; which has successfully survived the economic downturn, all while regulating itself. So why would the FCC need to regulate mobile research and innovation?
Their interest in consumer protection and overall market competition, in my opinion, are the only valid claims they have in regards as to why they are stepping in, seeing as consumer privacy and protection is always, and should always be, a major focus amongst a plethora of markets. However, with Carriers, the MMA and the CTIA updating constantly in order to assure proper engagement of users, their privacy, and exposure to content, what more can the FCC do that the mobile world is not already trying to achieve and/or already regulating? In fact, the MMA is generating a response to the FCC and its inquiries; a response all marketing agencies should support.
Although we know that government-run operations have not had the best history, some mobile agencies are seeing this as an opportunity to raise issues that are usually down played when viewing mobile marketing as a whole, such as distress when it comes to Carriers and provisioning short codes. Moreover, as the FCC is enabling all mobile companies and agencies to submit their opinions, comments, and thoughts on any topic regarding their upcoming overview. Whether or not the mobile world likes what the FCC is going to do and might do in the future, this is a great opportunity for the mobile world to voice its concerns, backup our success with data, and successfully display whether or not the FCC needs to step in.