The informal antitrust inquiry may look at whether consumers are hurt by long-term exclusivity agreements that carriers like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. sign with cell phone makers, according to a report Monday on the newspaper's Web site.

The Federal Communications Commission has already said it will look into exclusive handset deals.

The Justice Department could also look into whether carriers are unduly limiting the applications that they allow to run on their wireless networks, according to the Journal.

AT&T and Verizon had no comment.

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