Net neutrality should apply to mobile networks

[Commentary] A mobile carrier may want to give users lower carriage charges with the caveat that they can be interrupted, in other words, give users lower data charges for bandwidth-heavy applications on the understanding that they can be interrupted if there is congestion. Here’s the rub. There is nothing in the net neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission that would stop this sort of congestion management contract.

What the rules stop is a carrier going to one particular content provider and asking them for blanket payments to ensure that they are not interrupted and their consumers have a better experience. But they don’t stop you going to consumers and saying that they can nominate certain applications that they don’t mind having some interruption on. The principle here is that the mobile carrier shouldn’t dictate which applications should receive priority. That decision should be delegated to consumers, and, to them, you will have to give them an incentive to change their behavior to assist in network management. The power of the net neutrality argument comes from its removal of the ability of carriers to dictate specific behavior on content but opens it up for them to provide consumers with the tools and incentives to manage congestion issues should they arise. In the end, the engineering requirements will be met – because they must be – but the power of how they are met will not be concentrated.