Why Google And Verizon Are Right About Net Neutrality For Mobile Devices

Pundits and activists have been almost unanimous in bashing Verizon and Google over their joint policy proposal regarding net neutrality. The suggestion that neutrality should be enforceable for wireline service providers but not for wireless providers is seen as a wholesale betrayal of the principles both companies claim to stand for.

But the fact remains that mobile service providers aren't simply Internet service providers that happen to be delivering the Internet to mobile devices. Most obviously, they also connect users to the phone and text networks, which are obviously distinct from the Internet. Most mobile companies also stream other sorts of data, such as television, directly to mobile subscribers, separately from any general online services they might offer. There a two important things to note about this.

First, as all the pundits are currently screaming about at the top of their lungs, mobile providers could easily do an end run around network neutrality by offering all sorts of Internet content as separate data services, and making it faster than the "open Internet" served up in phone browsers.

Second, there is nothing that mobile providers offer that couldn't be an Internet offering. Voice-over-IP services are already a huge business. Internet-based texting services are growing up rapidly. And streaming video is obviously everywhere. In the long run, there is no reason for phone service as we know it, let alone SMS, to exist as separate networks. In 50 years, they probably won't. But for now, they do exist, and they're a very important part of what mobile carriers offer.

There is no obvious justification for regulating how mobile carriers balance these different services. Since we badly need innovation in this area, regulating it would in fact be a terrible idea. And, precisely because the line between Internet service and other data services is so fuzzy, heavy-handed enforcement of net neutrality simply doesn't make sense for mobile.