Network Neutrality for Wireless and managed Services?

Nov 4 was the deadline for reply comments at the Federal Communications Commission on whether proposed network neutrality rules should apply to wireless and managed services. Free Press told the FCC there was no justification for exempting mobile wireless broadband from its proposed expansion and codification of network neutrality rules. Free Press doesn't want a carve-out for managed services (specialized services that are delivered via broadband, but not over the public Internet) either, but given that the FCC has suggested it might be predisposed to do so, pushed for a narrow exemption. "The record demonstrates no substantive technical or economic support for any form of exemption for mobile wireless services," Free Press said in reply comments to the FCC. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) says that while there is no justification for regulating broadband Internet access service, if the FCC chooses to do so, it must apply those regulations to wireless as well as wired broadband, but should not apply them to managed services. NCTA said there is nothing unique about wireless that justifies exemption, and that if the FCC does want to give providers flexibility in managing their networks, it should provide that flexibility to wired as well. It pointed out that there is a wireless component to wired broadband in homes with wireless routers. AT&T told the FCC it should concentrate on freeing up spectrum for broadband, allowing network engineers to manage their networks, and confine its network openness regulations to the C block wireless spectrum already auctioned under those conditions.