Reports this week state that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has begun looking into whether large domestic operators are purposely making it hard for smaller rivals to compete. In particular, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are reported to be at the centre of an informal review of the exclusive arrangements that limit handsets such as Apple’s iPhone to particular operators. A Financial Times report notes that in recent days DoJ officials have contacted smaller operators to seek their views. News of the antitrust regulators’ interest comes more than a year after US regulator, FCC, received its first formal complaint on exclusive handset deals. The FCC said last month it would begin its own review of the matter. A Wall Street Journal report adds that the DoJ’s efforts are expected to cover all telecoms areas from fixed-line voice and broadband services to mobile.

Wireless Intelligence data shows that AT&T and Verizon together dominate the US mobile industry with a combined 60 percent of subscribers in 1Q09. Recent consolidation in the country’s mobile sector has left four operators (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint) accounting for more than 90 percent of the country’s 274 million connections.