Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler spoke out against carrier consolidation in the mobile service market at the Sept. 9 CTIA wireless show in Las Vegas.
Wheeler said the FCC is “poised to intervene” in order to prevent further consolidation.
Earlier this year, the FCC discouraged a proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile that would have joined the nation’s third and fourth largest wireless broadband providers, creating a company to rival industry leaders AT&T and Verizon.
The viability of future merger proposals between wireless carriers appears to be slim, with chairman Wheeler stating that the FCC “will continue to be skeptical of efforts to achieve scale through the consolidation of major players.”
Wheeler also used the event as an opportunity to discuss net neutrality. He expressed concern that the 2010 Open Internet Order is no longer sufficient to maintain net neutrality in mobile, stating there is “no question” that mobile and fixed broadband should be regulated in the same way.
Activists worry that without these tougher restrictions, large companies could potentially pay carriers to give their web traffic speed priority over their competitors. This would create a “fast lane” of the Internet that would leave small businesses and startups at a competitive disadvantage.
Opponents of net neutrality argue that if high-volume content providers such as Netflix and Amazon aren’t made to pay, they essentially just clog the slow lane — or better, get a free ride. The content companies are actively fighting for net neutrality regulations, whereas Internet service providers are resisting.
Despite Wheeler’s strong words on net neutrality, an adverse appeals court ruling from January indicates that actually implementing such a policy could be an uphill battle.
