All sides of
the network neutrality debate will have until Nov. 4 to weigh in on
how or whether the Commission should apply openness principles to
wireless broadband and specialized services that travel
over the "last mile" of Internet access but are separate from the
public Internet.
The FCC's request for further comment
was published in the Federal Register Friday, which starts the clock on its comment period.
Initial
comments will be due Oct. 12, with replies due Nov. 4. The comments are
follow-up input on the FCC's proposal to expand and codify its
Internet openness principles.
The
commission has said there is "narrowing" disagreement on its four
Internet openness guidelines and two additional ones on transparency and
nondiscrimination. But it said two sticking points are
the specialized service and wireless issues. Industry players are
meeting to try to come up with compromise legislative language that
would clarify the FCC's authority to oversee Internet openness.
They became
hot topics of conversation after vet net neutrality proponent Google and
network Verizon agreed that specialized services should be allowed and
wireless broadband exempted from all but
the transparency principles, given wireless' different network
management characteristics and challenges like spectrum limitations and
more unpredictable loads.
