FCC could shape next phase of smartphones

[Commentary] The open wireless Internet already feels like a birthright. For anyone with a touchscreen smartphone, it’s outlandish to think you couldn't download any app – or tap into any Internet service – you wanted. The era of walled gardens, however, with all its limitations and frustrations, is not that far in the past. And the US, where the iPhone and its kind have made their biggest inroads, is about to put the new-found freedoms to their first serious test.

Some broad protections should help. One would be a rule – still being hammered out – to prevent mobile companies from blocking “competing services”. What that means is not at all clear. When the nature of communications is morphing – and not just into voice-over-IP and instant messaging, but also social networking and tweeting – deciding exactly what is competing with what becomes a challenge. But for the Federal Communications Commission, that may be just the point. Being too prescriptive at this stage would leave future innovations unprotected. Also, vague boundaries could be effective if companies governed by them shy away from testing the limits. Another protection will lie in transparency, since operators will have to disclose to regulators when they block or degrade a service.