CTIA Says Net Neutrality Rules Would Slow Broadband Growth
Any “regulation” requiring net neutrality for wireless broadband could hamper what has become the fastest growing way of connecting to the Internet, CTIA told the FTC. Nearly 60% of new high-speed lines Dec. 2005-June 2006 were mobile broadband wireless lines, CTIA said. The written comments addressed issues raised in a Feb. FTC summit on broadband connectivity competition policy
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“No one has identified a real-world problem that cannot be addressed under the existing regulatory regime,” CTIA said: “Not only is there no need for new regulations, the unintended consequences of any set of new restrictions on broadband access providers threaten to derail the benefits that flow to consumers from continued innovation both within the broadband network and at its edges.”
Policymakers should not “favor innovation at the ‘edges’ of the network,” such as access devices and the applications that run on these devices, over “innovation within the network,” supported by carriers, CTIA said. The group gave updates on members’ offerings. Alltel’s Axcess Broadband service has speeds of 400-700 kbps in more than 100 cities, covering 44 million POPs. AT&T’s BroadbandConnect, with similar speeds, is available in 165 cities, including 73 of the top 100 markets. Sprint Nextel’s EV-DO service, also at 400-700 kbps, covers 200 million-plus POPs. T-Mobile runs more than 8,000 wireless hotspots with download speeds of 100 kbps. Verizon Wireless EV-DO service, with speeds of 400-700 kbps, is available in 242 cities, covering 200 million POPs.
More companies will offer service on spectrum they bought in the AWS auction, CTIA said. “Regulatory intervention in the form of net neutrality or other product and service restrictions threatens to reduce the power of competitive forces, the incentives for investment and innovation, and the variety of choices available to consumers,” it said.
Alcatel-Lucent warned against net neutrality rules, saying conditions cited by neutrality advocates “simply do not exist today. In the public Internet space, net neutrality remains a solution in search of a problem.”
The network neutrality debate focuses on the wrong issues, Jon Peha of the Center for Wireless & Broadband Networking at Carnegie Mellon U. said. “The debate should shift towards the complex details of differentiating harmful discrimination from beneficial discrimination, and away from high-level secondary questions like whether discrimination is inherently just, who ought to pay for certain Internet services, how important general design principles are,” Peha said in written comments.