Skype Asks FCC to Open Cellular Networks

Milwaukee's_Best writes "Skype has just asked the FCC to force wireless phone companies to open their networks to all comers. Skype essentially wants to turn the wireless phone companies into just another network of the kind currently operated on the ground. This would require carriers to allow any phone to be used on their networks, and for any application. Users would simply purchase a voice or data plan (though these could easily converge into a data plan if VoIP calling is used) and then use the device of their choice to access the network of their choice. Think of it as network neutrality for cell networks. Given the competition that exists within the industry, is this needed?"

Comments

Cartel?

[thesupermikey]

I'm I right in understanding that the way cell phone companies control their towers now, I to call it a cartel?

Additionally, the cellphone makers are leasing public property (the airwaves) and building a fence around them to keep the public out (unless you buy a key / plan from them)

Are these metaphors off base?

Expensive Data Transfer

[MrSteveSD]

I've often wondered why data sent through the mobile networks (voice, internet etc) is so much more expensive than land based traffic. I mean you wouldn't sit around browsing the web over a mobile phone, even if it did have a huge screen, since you'd go bankrupt. Surely it costs more to dig up a whole city and lay cable than it does to erect some mobile masts, so why is data transferred by cable so much cheaper? Also aside from the initial expense of digging up a city, surely maintenance is more expensive for cable companies since it also involves digging and disrupting traffic etc. It seems to me that we are being massively ripped off.

competitive industry?

[JimBobJoe]

Given the competition that exists within the industry, is this needed?"

I don't know if I consider this industry all that competitive--it's an oligopoly mixed with a cultural monopoly (what I mean by that is it's the same type of people running all of the companies. The people who run what we now call, again, AT&T, are basically old phone company fuddy-duddies who think it's a privilege (I'm using that word in the worst way possible) that we all have phone service. The same applies to Verizon and to a lesser extent T-Mobile and Sprint/Nextel.)

I'm not sure what I think of the idea. Half of me thinks it would be great, and the other half thinks that the companies would decline to upgrade to 3G, thinking that they'd be better off financially keeping the network slow enough so that Skype couldn't work on it.

Re:Competition?

[WafflesMcDuff]

If they didn't allow you to activate a handset that you say is 100% compatible, then I can almost certainly guess what the problem was. A few years back the FCC passed a law requiring all cell phones being activated to be cell 911-compliant. Basically these newer phones contained the ability to automatically connect you to the correct 911 call center when you dial 911 to make sure the emergency services get to you in time. (without this you may as well be calling Delouth Minnesota's call center from New York City). They allowed phones that were ALREADY active without this ability to remain active, as it was deemed unfair to customers to make them go out and buy a new handset against their will all of a sudden. So as long as grandma keeps paying her bill she can keep that brick that sits disused in her drawer active. However, if she deactivates it and then decides she wants it again after all, she will now have to go buy a new phone (or get a free one with a 2 year contract). In reality, your handset is probably 90% compatible with the other 10% being the 911 accessibility that is mandated by law to activate a handset.

Re:This will never happen

[n3umh]

No one is proposing taking the networks away from the cell companies. They still get your money when you use Skype over their network.

What they would be taking away from the cell companies is the stranglehold they have on the data services you can get. I think Skype has a good case.

The advancement of wireless communication is not well served by the current crop of cellular providers. They want to use the data capacity they've built to charge you $3 for the latest Justin Timberlake video, and to let you get your email at exorbitant rates. They really don't want to be in the network business, they want to be in the gouging-for-fancy-things-you-don't-need business.

They built their networks believing (correctly, so far) that they'd have this stranglehold. That may have been an incentive for them at the beginning, and I'm sure that someone will say that the nationwide cellular networks wouldn't have been built without that incentive, and maybe they're right, but it's about time for there to be some regulation. The radio spectrum is a public, limited resource.

Purchasing exclusive rights to public property with expectation that you'd be able to hold and abuse those rights forever is a bad business plan. It would be different story, and would not require regulatory intervention if Skype could just go ahead and build their own cell towers and set up their own wireless data network to deliver wireless Skype to their customers. They can't do that. Neither can anyone else who might want to try to bring new services to customers over wireless. The cell phone companies have little incentive to innovate outside of getting people their ringtones and music videos faster. There will eventually be intervention here. I think the precedent referred to in the article is very strongly applicable here.

Competition is Good

[Bellum Aeternus]

While I don't like Skype per se, they bring up a good point and have Congress's ear. The current mobile providers do everything they can to reduce customer choice and therefore competition. They lock phones, force users into long contracts, and charge outrageous prices. Look to Asia and Europe for examples of successful, open networks with no locked phones and no contracts (yes, you can get a contract for a lower price but you're not required).

Common carrier laws should be applied to the telcos and to Skype; in fact to any large network. The government is supposed to server the people, not businesses. Everyday I hope that somebody in Congress will remember this.