MMTC: FCC Should Seek Data on Mobile Marketplace Diversity

The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council has asked the FCC to start including requests for data on diversity when it asks for info for the next report on the competiveness of the mobile wireless marketplace.

Minorities tend to be higher users of mobile to access broadband, but MMTC wants the FCC to track how well they and women business owners are represented in the companies that supply that service, particularly since the FCC has made it a priority to boost minority participation, the group says.

In a letter to Ruth Milkman, who heads the FCC's Wireless Bureau, MMTC pointed out that in two recent notices seeking information, requests for data on minorities and women-owned businesses were not included.

MMTC says the FCC should include questions about "size and race/ethnicity, MWBE contracting and procurement opportunities and participation data and trends, in all notices issued for the upcoming mobile wireless competition report."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.