Net Neutrality Rules Still Shouldn’t Apply to Wireless, Wireless Industry Says

Wireless companies successfully convinced regulators in 2010 to keep mobile networks mostly free of network neutrality rules -- and it should stay that way, the mobile industry’s top lobbyist said.

Federal Communications Commission officials are looking into whether wireless networks should remain exempt from net neutrality rules under a controversial proposal released by Chairman Tom Wheeler. They’re currently seeking comments on how they might cover wireless networks under future net neutrality rules. Not surprisingly, mobile carriers aren’t thrilled by the prospect.

“Wireless is different … it is dependent on finite spectrum,” Meredith Attwell Baker, the new head of CTIA, the wireless industry’s lobbying arm, told reporters. Baker previously served as the top lobbyist for Comcast’s NBCUniversal* division, joining the company after serving as an FCC commissioner.