The Jeff Pulver Blog: Skype's Petition to the FCC on User Empowerment, Edge Device Deployment and Internet-Application Innovation in the Wireless Market

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February 21, 2007

Skype's Petition to the FCC on User Empowerment, Edge Device Deployment and Internet-Application Innovation in the Wireless Market

Our friends at Skype filed what I think will prove to be an important and logical petition with the United States Federal Communications Commission today, making the eminently reasonable request that the FCC ensure that its (and, by extension, all) users of mobile devices and networks have the freedom to communicate over wireless networks. Specifically, Skype has asked the FCC to 1) enforce its "Carterfone" rules in the wireless market, 2) to start a rulemaking proceeding to determine the legality of the carriers' restrictions on subscribers' full access to Internet-based applications and 3) to oversee a private sector group that would work to set open standards and transparency in wireless networks.

I think this petition should have important ramifications for all those that wish to attach devices or provide Internet-based voice and video applications over wireless networks. As things stand now, users are beholden to the wireless gatekeepers who unilaterally determine what devices, what functions, what applications may attach or ride or be accessed from the wireless networks.

I ask our friends who care about innovation in the wireless space, edge devices and Internet applications to take this petition seriously, shine a spotlight on the issue and help move the FCC in the right direction. The Petition should be posted on the FCC's Website within a couple of days. For those of you not familiar with navigating the FCC's Website, I'll try to post the link when it becomes available. For those of you who want a copy of the petition more immediately, please send an email to my Wartime Consiglieri Jonathan Askin. This promises to be an intense battle and might require us all to call out our Wartime Consiglieri to promote maximum innovation in wireless devices and applications.

Tags: Jonathan Askin, Mobile VoIP, Skype, FCC, Jeff Pulver