Skype demands wireless net neutrality

Skype - Voice over Internet Protocol Phone Company - addressed the FCC to decide that there are rights for consumers to use Internet communications software and to attach any devices they want to mobile phone networks.
Skype’s petition is: “As the wireless market has matured and wireless handsets have become an integral part of most Americans’ lives, carriers are using their considerable influence over handset design and usage to maintain control over and limit subscribers’ right to run software communications applications of their choosing. Instead of carrying the subscribers’ messages indifferent to content, carriers have exerted more and more control over the way consumers access the mobile Internet.”

Thus, Skype’s resolution is that the FCC to rule by law that wireless carriers subjected to the agency’s 1968 Carterfone decision that allows two-way mobile radios and other devices to be connected directly to the old AT&T monopoly network so long as no harm was caused to the telephone system.
CTIA -Cellphone association- replied Skype like this: “Skype’s self-interested filing contains glaring legal flaws and a complete disregard for the vast consumer benefits provided by the competitive marketplace. Skype’s ‘recommendations’ will freeze the innovation and choice hundreds of millions of consumers enjoy today. The call for imposing monopoly era Carterfone rules to today’s vibrant market is unmistakably the wrong number.”

The Skype lodgment appeared after Timothy Wu, Columbia University law professor, presented a claim to mobile phone industry for carrier control of content and features, and demanded wireless net neutrality.