WASHINGTON-When wireless customers begin to really use their wireless phones to access the Internet, who will they use? An Internet service provider of their choice or will they be forced to use the mobile-phone company’s ISP?
The answer Chris Gent, chief executive officer of Vodafone AirTouch plc, gave to attendees of CTIA Wireless 2000, shows that the issue of open access could soon touch the wireless industry.
“We want to make sure we have control of our customers … [The] first icons you will see will be my Internet routing because I want to support my company,” Gent said.
Open access was until recently the major policy question for cable operators building out their systems for broadband access.
AOL Corp. began fighting AT&T Corp. in Portland, Ore. last year for access to the cable system AT&T was buying from TeleCommunications Inc. because subscribers to cable-modem service are forced to use @Home as their ISP.
The City of Portland agreed with AOL that Ma Bell’s cable system should be open to competition. A local judge agreed and now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reviewing the case.
Recently, AOL appeared to change course when it said it was merging with cable-giant Time-Warner Inc. Instead of keeping up the war on open access, it now said it was better to let the market decide.
This change of attitude did not sit well on Capitol Hill where at least one senator in a recent hearing decried the change of direction.
For the most part, the wireless industry has ignored the open access question letting their landline comrades duke it out. But as Gent was saying that his customers would be guided around the Internet by Vodafone, Sprint PCS was signing deals with AOL and Earthlink showing a different strategy and the possibility for a future conflict.
The wireless angle has yet to reach the attention of federal regulators who have concentrated on the cable question but that may be because no one has asked the Federal Communications Commission to rule on the issue.
Other Washington policy makers have largely ignored the wireless angle as well.
Recently, a blue-ribbon panel of 50 official Washington types released an 88-page white paper on broadband examining the open- access question. The 88 pages included a list of consensus principals including non-discriminatory access.
“Customers should have choice in both their content and their Internet Service Provider. A nondiscriminatory access system should be encouraged to achieve that goal,” the report says.
While the diverse group agreed to a set of consensus principals for the varying technologies, it is unclear whether they would apply to wireless because no one from the wireless industry participated.
