Claims of Monopsony in the Wireless Industry Don’t Add Up
A recent report prepared for NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association by the Brattle Group paints a troubling picture of the U.S. wireless-infrastructure industry. But a closer look at the report’s narrative demonstrates that it is built on faulty premises, misapplied economics, and a failure to connect the dots.
While the report serves as a powerful piece of advocacy for contractors and will no doubt catch some policymakers’ attention, its core arguments collapse under basic law & economics analysis.
Brattle’s central claim is that the “Big 3” mobile-network operators (MNOs)—AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon—wield “monopsony” power to squeeze the small contractors who build and maintain cell towers. The report argues that this is driving skilled labor from the field, creating a risk to national security. While the report does not allege collusion or any other violation of antitrust law, it leaves it to the casual reader to infer some sort of antitrust shenanigans.