While the wireless carrier community has voiced deep concern about the FCC’s Oct. 22 proposal for ‘net neutrality,’ the Internet service provider community seems pretty excited. When the walls blocking data from devices come down, proponents of the proposal say the doors will be wide open for an Internet experience that’s free of the discrimination that has kept some content off mobile devices.

 

A law requiring equal treatment of Web content, regardless of its destination, is especially good news for Skype, which has taken an active role in cheering the proposal. In fact, when the proposal was first announced, two months ago in a speech at the Brookings Institute by FCC (News - Alert) Chairman Genachowski, Skype President Josh Silverman was one of just a handful of panelists who defended free and open Internet.

 

TMCnet connected with Christopher Libertelli (News - Alert), Skype’s senior director of government and regulatory affairs, to hear more about the company’s views and future vision. 

The first of a two-part Q&A follows.

 

CL: Consumers should be entitled to an open Internet experience, where any application can be loaded onto any device, on any network, whenever and wherever they want. A truly open Internet requires the separation of application, device and access, and that each should be free to maximize their potential.

 

This becomes even more important now that Skype conversations are occurring across platforms, from desktops and laptops running different operating systems to netbooks – and now the iPhone (News - Alert). It is crucial that there be a single, consistent policy that applies however consumers access the Internet, whether that is over a wired or wireless connection.

 

We shouldn’t have one set of openness rules when you’re chatting on your laptop; but when you decide to take the dog for a stroll, you walk out of the openness protections that Chairman Genachowski described so well at the Brookings Institution a month ago and again at the recent CTIA (News - Alert) IT & Wireless Entertainment Conference in San Diego.

 

Skype has a pending proceeding with the FCC for Skype’s “Wireless Carterfone” petition. “Wireless Carterfone” safeguards should give consumers the power to get the wireless phone features and Web applications that they want; it removes the carrier-imposed barriers between handset manufacturers and consumers; and it makes wireless networks open to software innovators.

 

CL: Mobile openness is a win for consumers and it’s a win for the entire broadband ecosystem. According to a recent report by Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution: “Consumers would like to have greater control over their applications and indicate they would expand their usage levels and be willing to pay more for services. In this situation, opening the networks would be win-win for businesses because the telecommunications pie would grow larger.” In fact, a third of Americans said they would be willing to pay more money in order to control their mobile phone applications.

 

For many mobile operators, imposing barriers to entry is a key to defending a market space, at the expense of delivering what consumers want. But today’s consumers are savvier. As the Brookings report highlights, consumers are looking for more innovation – better features, better pricing, constant refinement – to choose their carriers, devices and software.

 

Furthermore, I often hear operators exaggerate the effects of good government policy. It’s not true that simple, clear boundaries in the market will stifle network investment and commercial arrangements. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true. Openness rules didn’t stop Verizon (News - Alert) from investing billions in the 700 MHz spectrum auction.

 

A clear and consistent government policy on Internet openness does not prevent network operators from exploring new business models and pricing plans to achieve a return on investment, and provide shareholder value. You only have to look to the over 2,200 applications requesting nearly $28 billion in funding from NTIA and RUS for proposed broadband projects, all of which have openness and nondiscrimination obligations attached, to conclude that network neutrality principles will not deter investment.

 

All companies do better if we know what rules we are playing by. Unfortunately right now, the government has no policy on, for example, whether app-store blocking of Skype is consistent with the law. We should have some clarity on that question so all different sides of the ecosystem thrive.

 

CL: There is a difference between integrating Skype software into mobile handsets, such as we have done with wireless operator Hutchison 3, and network operator activity that breaks the fundamental ‘end-to-end’ borderless nature of the Internet.

 

Comcast undermined the “end-to-end” principle when it blocked all P2P traffic. That is very different than giving consumers a choice to use Skype on their mobile where bits on the mobile Internet continue to be handled in a fair manner. In fact, in our arrangement with 3, we send Skype calls back to the mobile operator’s voice network to enhance the user experience, while instant messages are handled over the Internet. In this way, the “end-to-end” principle remains fully intact.

 

There is nothing about our network neutrality position would destroy the incentives of network operators to invest in their networks. Openness rules did not destroy Verizon’s commitment to invest billions of dollars in 700 MHz spectrum. Before 2004, carriers all operated under openness and nondiscrimination rules and they continued to invest. Openness policy balances investments in the core and edge of the network.