mr. kelsey is speaking about. the carrier has to work with the device manufacturer to make sure it works on their network. there is mutual the element that goes on and a great deal of regional development. it is not know what he is talking about when he says it is only the device manufacturer that innovate. if someone wanted the verizon experience with a certain phone, if they went to a different carrier, they would not get it. >> how do you respond with what is happening in europe? >> i think europe has a paucity of handsets compared to the united states. they have about 150 handsets. we have over 630 different kansas available in the united states. that is related to the innovation that is going on. any view that there may be a different way to fund in addition is historical. we have years of innovation in handsets that have come about from a system where there are contacts between providers and device manufacturers that involved some area of exclusivity. it rewards innovation by providing these exclusive dealin

mr. kelsey. >> thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of consumers union. i plan to cover four areas. i would like to give the consumer perspective on text messaging and then i will talk about the consolidated market structure. i would like to cover some other limitations we see consumers facing in this marketplace and i will offer solutions we believe will help introduce more competition and lower consumer prices. since 2005 every carrier has doubled its price for text messaging. but this is confusing to consumers because these costs are not related to the price incurred by the carrier. -text messaging costs are very small. consider that it would take 600 text messages to equal one minute of voice. at 20 cents per text, that is $120 equivalent of a one-minute phone call. we believe the purpose of high individual text messaging is to price consumers into large monthly plans with more tax than a consumer will need. if they go over that amount, they are back to paying 20 cents per text. these are protection money consumers pay said they do not have to face hi