Sprint CTO Stephen Bye
Boom. In the annals of the fight for net neutrality, this is
really big news.
[I]n a surprise move this week, Sprint just broke ranks with the AT&Ts and Verizons of the mobile world to tell the FCC that actually, they're cool with Title II regulation.
Tech news site GigaOm spotted the filing, a letter from Sprint's CTO Stephen Bye to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and the rest of the commission. In stark contrast to the doom and gloom cries from the rest of the industry, Sprint's letter says that light touch common carrier regulation in the past is what allowed their company to grow and innovate to begin with, and that they will be just fine going forward if the FCC continues that approach.
Specifically, Bye's letter begins by saying that Sprint "does not believe that a light touch application of Title II, including appropriate forbearance, would harm the continued investment in, and deployment of, mobile broadband services."
"So long as the FCC continues to allow wireless carriers to manage our networks and differentiate our products," Sprint concludes, [we] will continue to invest in data networks regardless of whether they are regulated by Title II, Section 706, or some other light touch regulatory regime."
That massively undercuts the arguments other telecoms and industry lobbyists have been telling the FCC and Congress, that Title II regulations would be so stringent that they would signal an end to innovation and investment in data networks. If a major player like Sprint doesn't foresee a problem, then why should AT&T or Verizon? And if Sprint is going to forge ahead, then AT&T and Verizon will have to follow.
Sprint's endorsement of Title II doesn't just reinforce what is increasingly likely to be the FCC's decision next month to reclassify broadband, it changes the debate in Congress where Republicans have conceded the need for strong net neutrality, but are still arguing that Title II would go too far. Clearly, that's not the case.
Call or email the lobbying organizations who are fighting against you in Congress and with the FCC and tell them that the jig is up. Sprint has proven that their arguments are false. They need to stop fighting against us.