Wireless Lobbyists Step Up Defensive Against Net Neutrality

The wireless industry has been on a charm offensive, working overtime to lobby regulators, journalists and lawmakers to ease off one of the most vibrant sectors of the US economy. After last week's proposal for new Network Neutrality rules that would include mobile broadband operators, that offensive has turned into a full-tilt defensive. CTIA-The Wireless Association, the main trade group for carriers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and hundreds of handset makers and mobile software firms, is toting around a 35-page slide deck that outlines their case. They say the wireless industry has been among the most vibrant sectors of the economy and that it's moving too quickly to be regulated. Even with a stubborn recession, CTIA's vice president of regulatory affairs, Christopher Guttman-McCabe, told me over lunch last Thursday, the wireless industry directly employs 268,000 people with jobs that pay 50 percent higher the national average of wages in similar categories and that carriers are on track to continue to invest this year and next, their average capital investments of $22.8 billion a year. So why pick on us? That's the message by carriers by CTIA's six-member team assigned to lobby the FCC (and the 5-8 outside law firms hire to work on net neutrality and other wireless issues).