© Jeff Goldman

The Rural Cellular Association this week filed a petition with the FCC arguing that exclusivity arrangements between wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers - like the one between AT&T and Apple for the iPhone, or the one between Verizon and LG for the Voyager - stifle customer choice, decrease competition, and violate the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

"Vermont residents, for instance, are unable to use an iPhone without violating the terms of AT&T's two-year contract with Apple since AT&T provides only roaming service in Vermont," writes eWeek's Roy Mark. "The iPhone is also unavailable to most rural residents of Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, north dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming."

"That said, RCA isn't just looking out for consumers," notes CNET's Marguerite Reardon. "The truth is that smaller rural carriers are hardly ever offered exclusive handset deals because they have far fewer subscribers than the big four: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile. And this makes it hard for them to compete."

"While it sounds like a nice, egalitarian thing the gov't could latch onto, the petition will probably fail," writes Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan. "As big as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is on promoting competition, it's really only particular kinds of competition, and this doesn't really fall into the rubric. Moreover, this isn't the first time this kind of petition has been filed, and it's been smacked down every time before."

More here from the WSJ ... more here from the Silicon Alley Insider ... more here from MobileBurn ... more here from mocoNews ... more here from RCR Wireless News ... more here from WirelessWeek ... and more here from Electronista.