Prepared Remarks of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, 2014 CTIA Show

The Federal Communications Commission’s previous Open Internet rules distinguished between fixed and mobile, and our tentative conclusion in this new rulemaking suggested the Commission should maintain the same approach going forward. In this proceeding, however, we specifically recognized that there have been significant changes in the mobile marketplace since 2010. We sought comment about whether these changes should lead us to revise our treatment of mobile broadband services. The basic issue that is raised is whether the old assumptions upon which the 2010 rules were based match new realities.

Here is a sample of the kinds of issues raised in this context:

• What is the impact of LTE – a service promoted as offering Internet connectivity at faster speeds?
• Does it make a difference that when the rules vacated by the Verizon case were written there were 200,000 LTE subscribers and today there are 120 million, with build-out complete to 300 million Americans?
• What is the impact of the dramatic switch to smart devices for wireless Internet access? Our Open Internet proceeding will look closely at both the question of what is “reasonable” and the related subject of how network management practices can be transparent to consumers and edge providers.