AT&T, Verizon try to prevent ban on text message blocking

AT&T, Verizon, and other wireless carriers are urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject a petition that would impose common carrier regulations on text messaging. "Prior express written consent" needed for calls and SMS to cell phones. The FCC in 2015 reclassified both fixed and mobile Internet access as common carrier services under Title II of the Communications Act and used the new classification to impose net neutrality rules that prevent Internet providers from blocking or throttling traffic. Wireless carriers already faced Title II common carrier regulation of mobile voice, but the status of text messaging has remained unsettled, along with the question of whether carriers can block text messages.

In August, the FCC was asked by Twilio to declare that text message service must face Title II regulation, raising concerns among mobile carriers. AT&T and Verizon urged the FCC to reject Twilio's petition, and so did CTIA—The Wireless Association, which represents carriers in general. CTIA wrote in a filing that new restrictions could prevent wireless operators from blocking spam. "Twilio frames its Petition as an effort to curb what it calls the 'blocking' and 'throttling' of messaging traffic but in fact, Twilio is asking the Commission to invalidate consumer-protection measures that prevent massive quantities of unlawful and unwanted mobile messaging spam from reaching and harming consumers," CTIA wrote. AT&T and Verizon made similar arguments in their own filings. Sprint and T-Mobile did not write in themselves, but are represented by the CTIA.