Wireless Carriers May Get ‘Reasonable Network Management’ Practices Exception Under New Net Neutrality Rules, Wheeler Hints
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman offered some hint of the agency’s possible approach to mobile net neutrality during a commission open Internet roundtable Tuesday on mobile broadband, the second of the day held by the agency. (See related story in this issue.) Both suggested the FCC is considering the same rules for wireline and wireless, while letting wireless carriers put in place “reasonable network management” practices.
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The FCC is widely expected to impose similar rules on wireless as on wireline in its revised rules, a departure from the original 2010 regulations. That order set a weaker standard for prohibitions on blocking on wireless and exempted mobile from the nondiscrimination rule. Industry concerns grew last week after Wheeler’s speech to CTIA (CD Sept 11 p1). Tuesday, Wheeler went beyond his Las Vegas remarks.
Verizon’s CEO recently indicated he would “abide by mandatory platform parity,” Wheeler said. “Every network has management issues. Networks always manage to the millisecond. There’s nothing special in wireless to that effect.” Congestion issues go back to “Alexander Graham Bell and the twisted pair,” he said.
The question becomes “just what is the kind of reasonable network management that ought to circumscribe platform parity between wireless and wired, if at all,” said Wheeler, who spoke up from his seat in the Commission Meeting Room as the session neared its end.
If everyone agrees wireless is different, “can’t we get at the issue ... by just having a different approach for reasonable network management?” Sherman asked. “Can’t we have the same protections with regard to content and blocking, but [let] the details of reasonable management be more flexible?”
CTIA Executive Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe said he didn’t want to disagree with one of the group’s largest members. But when the FCC developed the original rules in 2010, there was a recognition that the commission may not be able to properly “insert” itself “into the day-to-day analysis of what reasonable network management is,” especially in a fast-changing industry, he said. “I'm not sure it’s something the FCC should be in the business of doing.”
Guttman-McCabe questioned whether LTE-Advanced, the iPhone, the proliferation of apps and tablets and other developments would have happened the same way if the FCC had imposed tougher net neutrality rules four years ago. “It would have been a completely different environment,” he said.
Wheeler, a former president of CTIA, retorted: “Chris, I can’t accept your Hell will freeze over analogy. ... Let’s not argue here whether Hell’s going to freeze over or not.”
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who also spoke at the roundtable, said wireless net neutrality is particularly critical since many low-income Americans rely on wireless to access the Internet. Some 41 percent of Americans rely exclusively on mobile broadband, according to a recent Pew Research poll, up from 29 percent in 2010, Clyburn said. Also, 56 percent of minority Americans rely on just wireless, she said. Carriers made clear last week at the CTIA and Competitive Carriers Association meetings they were deeply concerned about imposing tough new rules on mobile broadband, Clyburn said. “One thing I didn’t hear, and I hope it gets more attention today, is the effect on consumers."
Consumers Union and the Center for Media Justice urged the FCC to impose tougher net neutrality rules on wireless carriers. “We're concerned about rules that would turn the Internet into a pay-to-play environment, where only those with the deepest pockets could guarantee delivery of content,” said Delara Derakhshani, CU policy counsel. Consumers should have the same protections whether using a computer at home or a mobile phone, she said. “Consumers who use computers, smartphones, tablets, are all deserving of strong net neutrality protections."
"Real people and real lives are at stake” in the net neutrality debate, which is about much more than technology, said Amalia Deloney, policy director at the Center for Media Justice. “We have a responsibility to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected.” Deloney said ordinary Americans rely on an open Internet, “whether it’s wired or wireless,” for everything from job applications, to healthcare, to applying for federal benefits.
Gutman-McCabe said a “radical” change to the rules “would put at risk the world-leading ecosystem that U.S. consumers and businesses currently enjoy.” Gutman-McCabe largely repeated arguments the group made Monday in a filing (http://bit.ly/1tWZaos). “This isn’t a mature market,” he said. “It is one in a constant state of reinvention and disruption.”
"Is now the time to allow more prescriptive regulations into the tent of mobile network management?” asked Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future. “If we do, what would it cost consumers, U.S. innovation and the open Internet we all value?”