The Coming Mobile Meltdown

[Commentary] Jenkins suspects the "biggest political scrum in the near future won't be over classic net neutrality at all—it will be a battle over usage-based pricing, which is one of the few ways to keep excessive demand in check." Data collector AdMob reports that mobile Web page requests grew 9% from July to August -- a 180% annual growth rate. And Motorola recently went public with worries that a handful of mobile Slingbox users (a video streaming device) could wipe out cell service in a whole neighborhood. This is a mobile meltdown in the making. Freeing up spectrum and speeding cell phone tower construction are "sensible" efforts for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, "superintending a false panic about wireless net neutrality isn't." The Obama administration should at least focus on three ways to help, Jenkins concludes: Free up more spectrum, sit on its hands when mobile phone operators begin to do the merger dance, and relax about network neutrality.