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I know I’ve been ragging a lot on the mobile industry lately. They make it so easy. Continuing in that vein, a reader commented on my Reality Check: Wireless …

It seems like I’ve been ragging on the CTIA quite a bit lately, but these guys make it so easy.

In what turns out to be absolutely no surprise to anyone, the fine folks at the CTIA–the
industry association for the mobile operators in the U.S.–are opposing Arizona Senate Bill S-1010: The Cellphone Users Bill Of Rights. Why might they be doing that? Let’s see what the CTIA association president Steve Largent says:
The truth is that when you attempt to regulate a modern, high-tech industry as if it were a 1970’s public utility service, you wind-up hurting the people you’re seeking to protect. Just imagine the cost increases and customer confusion that would ensue if wireless carriers were forced to abandon their national calling and data plans, advertising campaigns, billing and customer care systems in order to set-up and comply with dissimilar regulations in 50 – or even two – different states.
Are they really asking for anything that would affect that? Let’s see what S-1010 is asking for:

I was thinking more about the difference between buying a bundle of minutes–at a fixed monthly cost–versus paying for minutes as you go. I’m trying to figure out why such a thing …

A reader, whom I’ve been engaged in many private conversations with about how much the mobile operators here in the U.S. rip us off, sent me information about how much mobile phone …

The CTIA–the industry association for wireless carriers here in the US–is spewing their lies creative interpretations of the truth again at the FCC in the form of ex parte communications. What else is new?

In their filing (warning, PDF link) they list 7 areas where the US mobile carriers excel compared to the other “top 10″ countries in terms of Gross Domestic Product, as ranked by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

Subscribers
Minutes Of Use
Revenue Received By Carriers per Minute of Use
Top Two Carriers Share of Wireless Market
Number of Facilities-Based Carriers with More than One Million Subscribers
Amount of Spectrum Allocated for Commercial Mobile Wireless
Subscribers Servers per MHz of Spectrum

We might be #1 in 6 of these 7 categories, but what does this mean? Hit the jump for more.

Back when I actually watched football on a regular basis, Steve Largent was a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. Despite the fact I live in the area now, I am not a Seahawks fan. My blood bleeds red and gold.

Now Steve Largent is the frontman for the CTIA, the lobbying group representing the mobile carriers here in the US. And guess what, Mr. Largent, I’m still not a fan of your work.

His latest post on the CTIA blog was a response to Walt Mossberg’s tirade about how phones here are locked. Now I’m not a high-profile guy like either of these two, but maybe you’ll like my opinions on Steve Largent’s statements all the same, which I will present after the jump.