Suit against T-Mobile for text blocking heads to federal court this week

On Sept 29, the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York will conduct a hearing on allegations that T-Mobile stopped sending texts for EZ Texting's customer WeedMaps.com, a medical marijuana distribution Web site, because of the content of the site.

EZ Texting said that T-Mobile's action stifled free speech and that rules to protect phone users from blocking should also be applied to texts. The case has spurred debate over the government's role as a regulator of text-messaging communications on cellphones.The case highlights a murky regulatory environment for one of the fastest-growing mediums of communications. Consumers sent 152 billion text messages last year, compared with 9 billion in 2005. The FCC doesn't regulate text messages, which is considered an information service like broadband Internet, in the same way that it does plain old phone service.

Public Knowledge, a media reform group, said the unfolding details support their push for the Federal Communications Commission to clearly assert its authority to regulate text messages as a common carriage service, like regular phones. The FCC prohibits calls from being blocked in a discriminating fashion, and the same rules should apply to texts, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. "The additional details in this case again make it abundantly clear the Federal Communications Commission must act to protect the legal status of text messaging and short codes," she said.