FCC Ruling Classifies Wireless Broadband Internet Access Service

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that wireless broadband Internet access service is an information service under the Communications Act (Act). This action places wireless broadband Internet access service on the same regulatory footing as other broadband services, such as cable modem service, wireline broadband (DSL) Internet access service, and Broadband over Power Line (BPL)-enabled Internet access service. It thus ensures that wireless broadband Internet access services are similarly free from unnecessary regulatory burdens. Competition among all of these broadband services will provide consumers with more and better services at lower prices, said the FCC in a release.

Wireless broadband Internet access service is defined in the ruling as a service that uses spectrum, wireless facilities and wireless technologies to provide subscribers with high-speed Internet access capabilities. Wireless broadband Internet access service can be provided using mobile, portable, or fixed technologies, and wireless broadband technologies can transmit data over short, medium or long ranges.

Specifically, the ruling finds that the transmission component underlying wireless broadband Internet access service is "telecommunications," and that the provision of this telecommunications transmission component as part of a functionally integrated wireless Internet access service is an information service. This approach is consistent with the framework that the Commission already has established for cable modem service, wireline broadband Internet access service, and BPL-enabled Internet access service, thus furthering the goal of regulating like services in a similar manner. The FCC also found that wireless broadband Internet access service using mobile technologies is not a "commercial mobile service," as that term is defined in the Act and implemented in the FCC's rules.

In reaching these determinations, the FCC provided regulatory certainty regarding the classification of this service, thereby encouraging deployment of wireless broadband Internet access to consumers.