WASHINGTON-Verizon Wireless told lawmakers Wednesday that the “network neutrality” provisions in the staff draft of telecommunications-reform legislation need to be modified to exempt the wireless industry.
The net-neutrality provisions should “be modified to make clear that wireless broadband Internet transmission service (BITS) providers have the right to manage their network and the devices that can be used with that network,” said Edward Salas, Verizon Wireless’ vice president of network planning, during a hearing by the House telecommunications subcommittee on the BITS bill.
Today, Verizon Wireless does not prioritize applications and does not restrict access to any applications on its EV-DO network, Salas later told RCR Wireless News, but he could not give the same guarantees going forward.
“Today, anybody can access whatever lawful content they want to access,” said Salas. “The future will be subject to what technology has to offer and what leverage and tools we have available to us.”
The House telecommunications subcommittee spent more than six hours Wednesday examining the staff draft of a bill meant to recognize that Internet Protocol-based broadband networks are different from circuit-switched wireline or wireless voice networks or cable TV networks. Those services all live under different regulatory schemes. Salas was the only wireless-industry representative to testify.
Many of the witnesses said they worry that instead of scrapping the silo approach to communications regulation, the BITS bill actually adds another silo. In the case of wireless, Salas told lawmakers, this is especially troubling because wireless uses an integrated network utilizing both IP-based technologies and circuit-switched technology.
The network-neutrality provisions also would prohibit carriers from restricting the types of devices that could be connected to their network.
“We are not talking about plugging fax machines onto a landline network but about devices with complex and dynamic functionality that not only manage the applications we sell but enable basic radio connectivity and participate with the network in managing radio-frequency power settings. We test and certify every device on our network with great care and diligence. This process cannot be abdicated to the consumer,” said Salas.
