The Federal Communications Commission's announcement on Thursday that it will launch an investigation of the wireless market was welcomed with brave statements by big wireless. "We are excited to tell the industry's story," declared Steve Largent, President of CTIA - The Wireless Association. "The wireless ecosystem—from carriers, to handset manufacturers, to network providers, to operating system providers, to application developers—is evolving before our eyes and this is not the same market that it was even three years ago. In this industry, innovation is everywhere."

But this is not the FCC of three years ago either. And the three Notices of Inquiry that the agency announced at its Open Commission meeting notably and perhaps even radically expand the array of questions that it usually asks of the wireless service sector. These probes are the first to be launched in quite some time by a full Commission—one in which new Commissioners Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican nominee, and Mignon Clyburn, the latest Democrat, participated. All five voted for the measures, but the Republican minority, consisting of Baker and senior Republican Robert M. McDowell, worried out loud that they could lead to heavy-handed and statutorily questionable regulations. Meanwhile, the Democrats stressed that reforms are long overdue.

Here is what the FCC says it wants to know.

Caveat mobile emptor

First, the FCC will release a "truth-in-billing" notice that, judging from the press release, is about far more than billing. It will ask whether there are "additional opportunities to protect and empower American consumers by ensuring sufficient access to relevant information about communications services." What that means in plain English is that the agency wants to know whether it should protect consumers not just after they've bought a wireless service contract, but even before. The Commission already takes complaints about a wide variety of ex post facto wireless and wireline problems, including do-not-call registry violations, billing misinformation or fraud, unauthorized switching, pretexting, and other mischief. But it has generally stayed away from the process by which consumers arrive at which wireless service to pick.

Now the FCC will ask for feedback on "cost-effective best practices in information disclosure from within the communications sector." Translation: the agency effectively wants to get into the realm of truth-in-advertising as well as billing.

"Despite signs of stabilization in the economy, times are still tough," FCC Chair Genachowski explained at the meeting. "Many Americans are learning to do more with less. A surprise charge on a monthly bill or a new service that does not perform as advertised can be a major budget-buster, especially as household spending on communications grows ever larger. Today’s notice will help the Commission build a record on ways to ensure that consumers understand what they are signing up for."

The inquiry will seek input on the information prospective mobile buyers have at hand when they choose their wireless provider and their service plan, or if they decide to switch to another service. This expansion of the agency's interests has the FCC's Republicans worried. At the meeting McDowell urged his colleagues to "keep in mind the Commission’s limitations," and called for "robust discussions of the Commission’s statutory authority, the applicability of the First Amendment, as well as the longstanding precedent in this area."

Does the FCC have the authority to question how AT&T and Apple promote the iPhone? And is the agency encroaching on territory normally occupied by the Federal Trade Commission? Expect these concerns to come up in this investigation.

Enhancing our understanding

There will also be an inquiry about competition, but with a new angle. Every year the FCC runs a Congressionally mandated report drearily titled the "Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions with Respect to Commercial Mobile Services." It focuses on predictable questions. How many mobile services are there in a given area? the compendium asks, or How many subscribers do they serve?

But Commission's upcoming Notice of Inquiry on Wireless Competition hopes to "enhance" the FCC's understanding of the mobile wireless industry" in several intriguing ways. The Notice will "adjust" the inquiry "to include new market segments not covered thoroughly in previous reports, such as device and infrastructure segments." And it will get into the question of how "upstream" and "downstream" market segments impact competition—those terms refer to how goods are produced and distributed before they're sold, and how they're packaged to consumers.

If this sounds to you like an invitation to discuss the rules for developing and promoting third-party mobile phone apps, so will Genachowki's commentary on the probe.

"We are transitioning from a voice-centric world to a world of ubiquitous, mobile Internet access," he said. "This transition promises to increase the pace of innovation and investment, but only if we have an open and competitive marketplace that gives every great idea a chance to make its way to consumers so that the best products or services win."

And once again, while the FCC's Republican minority supported the item, they did so with warnings. "We must be mindful that we may be seeking information about services that the Commission may not have the authority to regulate," Meredith Attwell Baker advised.

R&D

Finally, the FCC announced that it will open up an inquiry on the state of research and development in the wireless industry. Senior Democrat Michael Copps made no secret of the fact that he sees this as a chance to debate the role of government in stimulating innovation.

"One of the great and costly shortfalls of the last decade was a declining national commitment to basic technology research and development," he declared. "The tsunami of industry consolidation America endured in recent years short-changed research and development because R&D supposedly didn't nourish the quarterly bottom-line in ways sufficiently appealing to speculators-on-the-make. At the same time, government was for the most part exiting its role as an incubator of research and development."

To which McDowell responded: "Even at present, in the midst of the worst economy in decades—an economy that seems only to shrink—the communications sector, which includes wireless technologies and services, intends to plow as much as $80 billion this year alone into capital expenditures that are making broadband services faster, more available, and more affordable. Few, if any, sectors can make such a claim. In short, the phenomenal success of the wireless sector shows how well a light regulatory touch works."

Expect the FCC to tackle a wide variety of topics over the next few months, among them early termination fees, roaming rules, whether wireless carriers should be allowed to restrict short codes and exclusive handset deals.

But this trio of inquiries promises to look far beyond those specific problems, seeking a far-reaching overview of an industry that verges on redefining computing and mass media in one stroke. "It is essential that the Commission come to grips with this new world," Genachowski told the meeting.