Mobile Carriers Protest Proposed Network Neutrality Rules

Several broadband providers and right-leaning think tanks have vigorously protested the need for any network neutrality rules, saying there's little evidence of a problem that needs to be solved with government regulation. But perhaps the biggest change from the Federal Communications Commission's informal enforcement of net neutrality principles since 2005 is the agency's proposal to extend the rules to mobile broadband services. Mobile broadband providers, even as some of their parent companies oppose net neutrality for wired carriers, say the rules will be more difficult to apply on wireless networks, where providers need the flexibility to manage their networks and guard against congestion. "A single strand of fiber represents more capacity than you can ever hope to get out of the entire 5 gigahertz of usable spectrum in any given air-space," said George Ou, policy director for Digital Society, a free market, tech-focused think tank. "The fact that we've constrained commercial wireless networks for phone and data to a few hundred megahertz makes the problem even worse."