Mobile phones aren't rotary phones

[Commentary] It's a sad state of affairs for U.S. innovation policy when one has to explain the reason subjecting the supercomputers in our suit pockets to regulations written for rotary phones is a bad idea. And the mobile future dims for all of us when these painfully obvious proof points fall on deaf ears at the Federal Communications Commission. Yet this is where we stand.

Internet giants like Amazon, Yelp and Netflix are popping Champagne corks celebrating the FCC's imminent decision to declare the nation's broadband infrastructure -- the crown jewel of our innovation economy--nothing more than a regulated utility, like the local gas, electric or water company. We all support an open Internet. Indeed, we all enjoy it today -- which begs the obvious question of why the White House and the FCC are so dead-set on such expansive new rules. That ringing sound? It's the 1960s calling. They want their rotary phones back. For consumers, our economy and American innovation, we shouldn't hesitate to hand them over.

[Spalter is chair of Mobile Future which represents technology and communications companies like AT&T and Verizon]