5G, net neutrality may be on a collision course

Network neutrality and 5G may be on a collision course as the mobile industry tries to prepare for a wide range of mobile applications with differing needs. The net neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission have raised some eyebrows at Mobile World Congress. The full text of the rules isn't public yet, but mobile movers and shakers are having their say. The latest questions involve 5G, the next-generation standard that everyone here is trying to plan for. The most common thing they think 5G will have to do is to serve a lot of different purposes. Regulators' attempts to ban "fast lanes" and other special treatment might make that impossible, people who've been thinking about 5G said.

Industrial sensors, self-driving cars and other emerging uses of the Internet have needs that can't be met by a general-purpose network, Ericsson Group CTO Ulf Ewaldsson said. That's driving a global discussion on a so-called "industrial Internet" alongside the regular Internet that's grown up around the Web and other consumer activities, he said. Regulatory efforts like the FCC's rules don't see a distinction, Ewaldsson said. He didn't slam the agency for this but said the mobile industry needs to do a better job of explaining what it's trying to do. Most importantly, it's not trying to block or throttle people's access to the Internet, he said.