The CTIA has an interesting take on the whole Net Neutrality argument. It argues that Net Neutrality deals with the issue of pipes, while the wireless spectrum is unlimited, so it needs to be regulated differently. Enterprise Networking Planet checks to see if it has a point and is anyone buying that argument?
Federal regulators’ drive to codify rules that would prohibit network providers from discriminating against certain types of traffic has sparked considerable opposition from ISPs of all stripes. But perhaps no sector is feeling more anxiety than the wireless industry.
“Wireless is different,” Chris Guttman-McCabe, CTIA’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said this morning.
In a public debate with Gigi Sohn, president of the pro-Net-neutrality advocacy group Public Knowledge, Guttman-McCabe argued that wireless networks face unique pressures that aren’t found in the wireline and cable sectors. Specifically, wireless operators have a finite amount of spectrum, which they use to both connect voice calls and data transmissions.
“In … our integrated service, one can impact the other,” he said. “We can’t build out of this…. As much as we’d love to have a flood of spectrum come our way, there’s nothing in the pipeline.”