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The US regulator, the FCC, has been asked by a group of US senators to look into whether handset exclusives are in the interests of consumers, while a coalition of public interest groups has joined the campaign.

The complaint originated earlier this year among local cellular operators who supply services where the big networks, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, do not reach. They argue that, where their coverage does overlap, they cannot compete because the majors have exclusives such as AT&T's for the iPhone - and they cannot attract such deals because of their limited reach.

The public interest groups largely agree, and this week wrote a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee ahead of its nomination hearings for two new would-be members of the FCC - Julius Genachowski, nominated by president Barack Obama to chair the agency, and Robert McDowell, nominated for one of the two Republican seats.

The groups include the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Prometheus Radio Project, the United Church of Christ Office of Communication, the Media Access Project, Public Knowledge, and the Center for Rural Strategies. They have raised five key concerns - broadband, localism, diversity, open networks and wireless. Exclusives are particularly in the firing line. "Right now wireless providers restrict consumers' ability to use the device of their choice with wireless service," the groups wrote. "Shouldn't wireless customers have the same rights as users of wired services have had since 1968?"

Back to the rural carriers - they argue that local customers are in effect being told 'if you want to get an iPhone or a Palm Pre you have to move network' - but the only reason for the mass exodus to AT&T in these areas may well be the iPhone, and local providers do not have the reach to attract such exclusives.

The exclusive deals were initially considered a backward step when they were introduced by Apple and AT&T, but have been copied widely ever since. Most exclusives are for a brief period, say three or six months, and customers can hold out for the exclusivity term and then pick up the new phones - but in the US AT&T has been exclusive with Apple for around 18 months. This has been a bit of an historical accident, and may not be sustainable.

The remedy, some are suggesting, does not lie in antitrust legislation but in collaborative effort by the smaller carriers, which could work with Verizon or more likely Sprint to pool their purchasing power, in a pincer movement to dent AT&T. The rural cellco incumbents could throw in their lot in a combined deal, perhaps involving cheaper data roaming, on a device which offers the same kinds of capabilities and which helps an AT&T rival.

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