FCC Revisits Network Neutrality Exemption for Mobile Broadband

High-speed cellular Internet access has been largely exempt from regulations aimed at preventing Internet providers from slowing down or blocking websites and applications. But wireless broadband’s special status is quickly losing support.

On Sept 16, the Federal Communications Commission will hold a round-table discussion to examine whether proposed network neutrality rules should cover mobile broadband. The battle lines will probably be clear: the cellphone companies against nearly everyone else. Removing the wireless exemption from some net neutrality rules would be a change in the commission’s stance since May, when the regulator laid out a set of proposed rules called “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet.” In that draft, the newly proposed rules would subject wired Internet service providers to “commercially reasonable practices” of network management. But in recent weeks, voices calling for wireless broadband to be treated the same as wired services have grown louder.