As the FCC’s deadline for comment on its net neutrality rules approaches (tonight at midnight!), the Wall Street Journal suggests that AT&T and Verizon stocks will remain flat for awhile. It also reports Verizon Executive Says Usage Pricing Is Necessary, meaning bandwidth-intensive applications on mobile phones will end up costing users more. While intended to prevent broadband carriers from being gatekeepers, the rules might be flexible for wireless providers whose networks are being strained by their success in selling smart phones.
For a view of the proposed rules and wireless providers’ stake, check out this Network Computing review of the rules and its comment on wireless industry problems: “the real motivation behind killing the proposed rules is that the wireless carriers are offering Internet enabled broadband phones. The wireless broadband industry is very much in the same place that the ISP industry was in the late 90’s, with far more demand than they had capacity to meet.”
For more information, do a Google search or consult Save The Internet, which represents consumer users of the internet and asserts that “phone and cable companies have been busy stuffing the docket full of misinformation that could guide the FCC to make a rule that doesn’t serve the public interest. We have to counter their spin and misinformation.”