Sharp Divide Seen in Net Neutrality Comments on Rules for Mobile Broadband
The question of whether wireless will be subject to the same rules as wireline is emerging, as expected, as a key area of disagreement in industry and public interest group filings last week on net neutrality. Industry officials predict that in an effort to toughen proposed rules, Chairman Tom Wheeler may urge the commission to impose the same standards on mobile as it imposes on fixed broadband (CD July 17 p1). The 2010 order imposed a less strenuous standard for prohibitions on blocking on mobile broadband and exempted it from the nondiscrimination rule.
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Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, said in a news release the revised rules should not treat wireless and wireless differently. “The FCC must not create two different Internets, one wireline and open, the other wireless and closed,” Calabrese said Thursday. “Individuals will increasingly rely on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices that will connect to the Internet over a variety of fixed and mobile carrier networks depending on location, need and cost.”
The 2010 rules prohibited wireless carriers “from blocking websites and telephony apps,” but not other apps, Free Press said in its comments (http://bit.ly/1lcAQ9q), calling the distinction “nonsensical.”
But equipment maker Ericsson said the FCC should recognize as it did four years ago that wireless is unique. “Wireless is proof that the unregulated Internet is thriving,” Ericsson said (http://bit.ly/UftElM). “The wireless industry in the U.S. has been almost completely unfettered by open Internet/Net Neutrality rules, and over the past five years in particular, has become the envy of much of the world in terms of price, speed, competition, and breadth of offerings."
The FCC got things right in its treatment of mobile broadband four years ago, Cisco said. While the industry continues to change, the changes “do not warrant reassessment of the Commission’s treatment of mobile broadband service here,” Cisco said (http://bit.ly/1n1efk8).
AT&T said the FCC should stick with its 2010 determination that wireless and wireline are different. AT&T pointed to numbers from CTIA indicating that wireless data traffic more than doubled from 2012 to 2013. Wireless carriers need to manage their networks in a way that doesn’t apply in the wireline world, said the company. The “near-insatiable demand for mobile broadband” and “exploding number of applications and services” dictate that wireless “dedicate substantial resources to network management,” AT&T said. The “operational constraints” cited by the FCC four years ago still apply, the carrier said (http://bit.ly/1qOFq1o).
The GSM Association highlighted specific characteristics of wireless (http://bit.ly/1nTR640). “Mobile operators continue to face unique operational and technical challenges in providing fast, reliable Internet access to their customers due to the shared use of network resources and the limited availability of spectrum,” the group said. It said the wireless market is “constantly evolving” and “robustly competitive.”