LAS VEGAS — FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler addressed a standing-room-only crowd on day one of Super Mobility Week, discussing a range of topics including net neutrality and the upcoming “broadcast incentive” auction. Wheeler said that even though the commission is still accepting comments on its proposed net neutrality rules, commissioners have already started to review and consider submissions.
Wheeler highlighted Microsoft’s letter to the FCC, saying the software giant wrote that we are living in a “mobile first” society in which mobile devices are the primary path to the Internet for many people. Wheeler said that tens of thousands of Americans join Microsoft in advocating for net neutrality rules for the mobile Internet that will follow the guidelines established in the FCC’s 2010 Open Internet Order. That order prevented Internet service providers from blocking or slowing the delivery of packets on their networks.
Earlier this year, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the no-blocking part of the Open Internet Order, but at the same time the court said that the FCC has authority to regulate broadband providers as common carriers if it classifies Internet broadband as a telecommunications service. That ruling prompted the FCC’s net neutrality proposal, which would allow service providers to charge content providers for guaranteed high-speed delivery, and would forbid providers from blocking or slowing down the delivery of content.
Blocking or slowing content, also known as “throttling,” is a practice under investigation by the FCC, Wheeler said. He said that he has written to all four major U.S. carriers to ask them for information about their practices in this area. Wheeler said he is concerned that some users who paid for unlimited data are now being singled out for slower data speeds, and that some people who purchased devices based upon an expectation of unlimited high-speed data are instead getting data at reduced speeds.
Wheeler noted that the mobile Internet of today is very different from the mobile Internet of 2010, primarily because the number of LTE connections has risen exponentially. But he also made it clear to his audience that he recognizes the fact that bandwidth is still a very limited resource.
“Our greatest asset is that which we do not see — spectrum,” said Wheeler. “The government has heard your cry for more spectrum.” He praised the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction as a creative way to bring more wireless spectrum to the market and encouraged wireless operators to “show up” for the auction. Wheeler said that a number of wireless carriers have been “strangely silent” about their plans.
Carriers may have good reasons to be cautious. While Wheeler was discussing the 600 MHz incentive auction with wireless industry professionals at CTIA, representatives of the top U.S. carriers were discussing their concerns just a few miles away at CCA 2014.
