Telecommunications· United States · 2023
A public-interest profile for showing where market power is measurable, where public data is missing, and what government should require next.
Structure snapshot
The publisher reports concentration, but the public record does not expose reusable firm shares for this period.
Concentration on the HHI scale
That makes it highly concentrated on the HHI scale — past the 2,500 line of the 2010 merger guidelines, and well past the 1,800 line the agencies' 2023 Merger Guidelines use.
Ranks #7 of 12 tracked markets by HHI.
Evidence atlas
Data
2023
Verified
Packet
68 rows
1 core source
Action
Immediate review
HHI 3,550
Public stake
Telecommunications
Concentrated markets turn everyday access into private leverage.
Evidence posture
Verified
68 reusable rows across 1 core source.
Government duty
Immediate review
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.
HHI
3,550
Top firm
N/A
CR4
N/A
Data status
Verified
Confidence
High
Review flags
2
Source-backed concentration profile
FCC 2024 Communications Marketplace Report reports weighted average HHI for mobile wireless by economic area.
Observatory market brief
The latest 2023 screen reports HHI 3,550, classified as highly concentrated. HHI rose by 444 points from 2017 to 2023, moving from 3,106 to 3,550.
Latest structure
HHI 3,550The latest 2023 screen reports HHI 3,550, classified as highly concentrated.
Published change
+444 HHIHHI rose by 444 points from 2017 to 2023, moving from 3,106 to 3,550.
Evidence custody
2 custody records2 records in the evidence custody chain, 0 latest share rows, 2 linked official records, and 2 related briefs support this profile. Status is verified with high confidence.
Comparison window
HHIHHI points
Public research question
Immediate review
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.Open public-action routeMarket-definition contract
This profile’s concentration claims apply only to the product, geography, denominator, and measurement basis documented below.
Product boundary
Commercial mobile wireless service represented in FCC competition reporting
Geographic boundary
FCC economic areas summarized as a weighted national concentration measure
Measurement basis
FCC source-reported HHI by economic area
Denominator
The service and provider universe used in the FCC mobile wireless concentration screen
Included
Provider concentration captured by the FCC-reported economic-area HHI
Excluded
A national carrier-share table is not reconstructed from the reported HHI
Cross-market use
Screen only
Time-series use
Comparable anchors
Method note
Use the FCC source-reported weighted average HHI and preserve the economic-area basis.
The published national signal is an aggregate of geographic market screens rather than an HHI computed from a public national carrier-share table.
Boundary source
2024 Communications Marketplace Report
Federal Communications Commission · accessed 2026-05-16
Declared economy screen / navigation only
NAICS 517112 / Wireless telecommunications carriers (except satellite)
2022 national industry HHI 3,074.2; this does not redefine or validate the market above.
Comparison guardrail
The same 0-10,000 HHI scale does not make different product, geographic, or denominator definitions economically interchangeable. Cross-market HHI is a descriptive screen only.
Evidence timeline
Each profile should read like an inspectable research route: source access, concentration metric, participant table, official policy chronology, briefing, and the government question it creates.
Full route
Metrics, sources, reports, and action posture.
10
Events
11
Rows
2
Sources
0
Gaps
Latest evidence: Research brief · The U.S. Competition Landscape
Full route packet
Profile, metrics, participant rows, sources, and reports for the selected market.
BLS consumer price context
Published twelve-month change
Jointly rebased trajectory
Declared context bridge
Monthly release clock
Peer comparison atlas
Strong public profiles are navigable. This view connects the current market to sector peers, concentration peers, and disclosure-gap peers using the public metrics already in the observatory. Node size follows published HHI; withheld HHI uses the smallest marker.
All peers: Show every selected peer route.
Comparison readout
5
Compared
1
Same sector
0
Data gaps
3,392
Avg peer HHI
Peer profiles
Current market
3,550
HHI
N/A
Top
N/A
CR4
United States · 2023 · Federal Communications Commission
Longitudinal evidence
Inspect sourced concentration releases and comparable share anchors without interpolating between public observations.
HHI anchors
3
discrete public releases
Firm snapshots
0
comparable share years
Observation span
2017-2023
3 public years
Data sources
1
unique linked records
Concentration releases
Each bar is a sourced release. Missing years remain missing rather than being drawn as a continuous trend.
Selected release
United States
HHI
3,550
Prior anchor
-46
Leading firm
Unavailable
Share coverage
N/A
Latest value in the FCC 2024 report.
Keep HHI, firm shares, trend, and evidence quality separate so researchers can inspect why this market is routed for review.
Immediate review
High confidence
2 visible
Review posture uses published concentration thresholds, trend direction, and evidence status as separate signals. It does not estimate consumer harm or establish legal liability.
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.
Complete participant shares and residual-category treatment
Methodology: Use source-reported HHI values; do not derive carrier shares where the public report does not publish them.
Limitations: Latest value in the FCC 2024 report.
Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission, 2024 Communications Marketplace Report, FCC 24-136, released December 31 2024.
Wireless service (United States, 2023): HHI 3,550; CR4 not public; top-firm share not public; verified public data; high confidence; action posture: Immediate review.
Track roll-ups, serial acquisitions, vertical restraints, and remedy compliance before concentration hardens further.
A compact audit of whether the profile has enough public evidence to support action.
Source mix
1 sources
Hardening watch
Jump from this market profile to the filtered machine-readable rows behind the public claim.
This profile relies on public records and clearly labeled limitations.
View all sourcesUse source-reported HHI values; do not derive carrier shares where the public report does not publish them.
Read the full methodologyOther tracked markets — Telecommunications first, then the most concentrated.