AT&T, Verizon Set to Clash With FCC Over Mobile-Web Regulations

AT&T and Verizon are girding for a fight against sweeping new US Internet regulations that the mobile-phone carriers say will discourage them from making billions of dollars in network investment.

For the first time, US regulators are weighing rules that govern how wireless carriers deliver online service when the Federal Communications Commission votes on a plan Feb 26. “Really strident, heavy-handed regulations on wireless and broadband -- if we go down that path -- that’s what causes everybody some apprehension and uncertainty and begins to change investment theses,” AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said in January. Far-reaching limits on how carriers manage their networks could hamper services such as live TV broadcasts that require priority handling to ensure smooth video, the big carriers say. “We continue to believe that a middle ground exists that will allow us to safeguard the open Internet without risk to needed investment and years of legal uncertainty,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, said.