BlackBerry wants Internet rules to touch Netflix, Apple policies

BlackBerry is looking to expand the definition of network neutrality to force companies like Apple and Netflix to allow their applications to run on BlackBerry devices.

The company's chief executive, John Chen, sent a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce Committees, saying that "not all content and applications providers have embraced openness and neutrality." "All wireless broadband customers must have the ability to access any lawful applications and content they choose, and applications/content providers must be prohibited from discriminating based on the customer’s mobile operating system," Chen wrote in a blog post. "The carriers are like the railways of the last century, building the tracks to carry traffic to all points throughout the country," he said. "But the railway cars traveling on those tracks are, in today’s Internet world, controlled not by the carriers but by content and applications providers."