No Decision on How Wireless Will Be Treated Under New Net Neutrality Rules, Wheeler Aide Says
Remarks by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at CTIA Tuesday (CD Sept 10 p1) could easily be read as a sign the FCC is headed toward imposing similar net neutrality rules on mobile as are expected to be imposed on wireline, said commission and industry officials at CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association meeting in interviews.
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If it wasn’t clear before, “Chairman Wheeler left little doubt the FCC is heading toward tougher net neutrality rules for wireless,” said an industry executive following Wheeler’s speech. “Wheeler appeared to signal that wireless operators could potentially be covered by the new net neutrality regime,” Guggenheim Partners analyst Paul Gallant emailed investors Wednesday.
The FCC 2010 net neutrality rules imposed a weaker standard on mobile broadband for blocking and exempted it from nondiscrimination rules. But many industry officials predict the FCC will impose similar rules for wireless and wireline as one way of toughening the rules (CD July 17 p1). Reply comments on net neutrality are due at the FCC next week, and also next week the agency will convene a workshop on mobile net neutrality issues. An event on net neutrality was held Wednesday at the commission, as some websites protested what they see as weak rules Wheeler favors. (See separate report below in this issue.)
Wheeler’s suggestion that “competition does not assure openness should be a concern for wireless carriers and edge providers alike,” said Fred Campbell, director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology: “The concern about walled gardens referenced by the chairman is as much an issue for edge providers as ISPs.” Campbell, a former Wireless Bureau chief, said “AOL pioneered the walled garden approach from the edge in the Internet’s earliest days, and Apple has mastered it in the mobile space."
"It’s difficult to see how the FCC could impose more stringent net neutrality regulations on wireless carriers in order to avoid walled gardens without tearing down the mobile walls erected by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS as well,” Campbell said. “If it’s a problem for carriers to require payment for apps to reach consumers, then it’s a problem for Google and Apple as well."
Wheeler quoted a filing by Microsoft, during his Tuesday CTIA keynote. “There is no question that mobile broadband access services must be subject to the same legal framework as fixed broadband access services,” he said. “Thousands of consumers have echoed that sentiment.” Wheeler also said there have been “significant changes in the mobile marketplace since 2010."
Renee Gregory, aide to Wheeler, said during a CCA panel Wednesday that people should not read too much into her boss’s comments (http://fcc.us/1rIxPAq). “The chairman said what he said, you all can read the prepared remarks,” she said. “Part of what he said is we're still evaluating the record."
During a Wednesday keynote, CTIA President Meredith Baker said it’s critical to the wireless industry’s future to get the rules right on net neutrality. Some groups “want to dramatically upend the 2010 framework,” she said. “The risk of a new and troublesome regulatory approach is real.” Baker warned that some would reclassify broadband as a Communications Act Title II service and “treat broadband as a utility.”
"Ours is too important a platform for rules designed for a different technology and a different platform,” Baker said. The growth of LTE and smartphones is evidence not that wireless should be treated the same as wired broadband, but that “we should retain a mobile specific approach because has worked so well for consumers,” she said. Baker said wireless is fundamentally different: “Congress said so in 1993 and the FCC has treated us differently with dramatic, pro-consumer results."
"Wireless is different; the FCC has taken a position that wireless is different,” said CCA President Steve Berry in an interview. “I'd like to know how he’s going to factor that in going forward."
Berry cited Wheeler’s speech last week on his broadband competition policy (CD Sept 5 p1 or WID Sept 5 p1). Rural carriers are getting increasingly fast speeds on their networks, but the FCC seems to keep changing the rules, he said. “First let’s establish that we can manage our networks in a way that we can use the technologies available to have a good customer experience.”