• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, July 7, 2009 12:45 PM

Christine Varney, the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the DOJ, is reviewing handset makers' exclusive contracts with carriers-in particular, AT&T's monopoly control over Apple's iPhone, The Wall Street Journal reports. As Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget says, "one suspects that Google lobbyists are somehow involved."

According to the report, the DOJ is now reviewing whether large U.S. telecoms like AT&T and Verizon Communications have abused the market power they've amassed in recent years. Exclusive contracts with handset makers, in which wireless carriers may be hurting smaller competitors by locking up popular phones through exclusive agreements, is one of several potential abuses being investigated. The agency has yet to launch an official inquiry, however.

An unnamed source claims that the DOJ could also review whether telecom carriers are unfairly restricting the types of services other companies can offer on their networks.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »