Wireless Carriers ‘Literally Can’t’ Comply with Tougher Net Neutrality Rules, Largent Warns

Cellular carriers have little to offer toward a compromise on wireless net neutrality rules, CTIA President Steve Largent told reporters Tuesday. He and other CTIA officials said wireless carriers couldn’t strike a bargain if they wanted to, since only rules requiring increased transparency and disclosure make any sense for their business.

Wireless issues were a major sticking point when industry talks brokered by FCC Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus broke down. The Google-Verizon agreement on net neutrality would largely exempt wireless. Commission officials have indicated that Chairman Julius Genachowski is unlikely sign off on any rules that don’t impose on wireless rules like those imposed on wireline networks.

"We literally can’t do it,” Largent said in response. “It’s not a matter of our will is not willing to bend. That’s not the case. It’s that we technically can’t meet a lot of the [requirements] that they're talking about.” He noted that wireless faces severe limitations on throughput because carriers must rely on spectrum. “This is not something that the wireless industry necessarily wants to trumpet,” he said. “It’s a weakness that we have. That’s the facts."

CTIA has had a consistent message on net neutrality, Largent said. “Our points have not changed,” he said. “There’s no example of any harm in the wireless industry as it relates to net neutrality. Wireless is clearly different. We have to manage our network. We're delivering our service over a limited amount of spectrum.”

Largent conceded that congressional opposition to net neutrality rules likely will have little effect. “I think that the chairman feels he had a mandate not from Congress but from the presidential election,” he said. “This was one of the clarion calls that the president made in his campaign, about net neutrality,” so Genachowski is moving ahead.

The Google-Verizon’s effect is unclear, Largent said. “I think the greatest fear is that some way this agitates the left, the people arguing for net neutrality, and that there ends up being some opposition generated because of this story that wouldn’t have been there otherwise,” he said. “I don’t know that that’s true.”

CTIA Regulatory Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe said tests show that wireless carriers need to control their networks to maintain consistent service. Wireless is different from wireline, he said. “It’s not just a policy difference,” Guttman-McCabe said. “It’s not just a philosophical difference. It’s not just a competitive difference. It’s a physics difference. There are limits” to what a wireless network can do.

"You can’t come up with public policy just because of agitation,” said Dane Snowden, CTIA vice president of external and state affairs. “That doesn’t work."

CTIA officials also said they are concerned about a number of pending FCC proposals to impose additional regulation on the wireless industry. “We do find it strange that the most competitive industry that the commission regulates is the one that seems to be under increased scrutiny,” Guttman-McCabe said. Largent said wireless has been in the cross hairs only because it is so successful.

A number of regulatory proposals have been put forward by the FCC Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau. Snowden, a former chief of the bureau, also said the wireless industry is highly competitive: “I sat in that seat for four years as bureau chief. There’s a fine line between using the bully pulpit to encourage and using the bully pulpit to thwart innovation and make it unstable.”