http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/att-adds-a-big-amen-to-verzion-google-net-neutrality-pitch.arsAmen, AT&T is loudly proclaiming in response to Verizon and Google's call for a federal net neutrality policy that exempts wireless broadband from non-discrimination rules.
"Wireless is different," insists AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh on her latest blog post. The good news is that data traffic on AT&T's networks "continues to explode."
But the company faces the "ever-constant struggle between capacity and demand."
"Pitted against this insatiable demand are wireless networks of finite and shared resources. Wireless networks simply cannot provide the same amount of capacity as wireline networks (i.e., DSL and cable). Fiber is to a wireline network what spectrum is to a wireless network, and as a transmission medium, the two simply do not compare."
AT&T's Marsh estimates the "theoretical top speed" of a LTE 4G carrier at 100Mbps. "By contrast, theoretical transmission speeds on fiber can reach as high as 25,000,000Mbps. The 5 extra zeros tell the story."
The carrier insists it's doing all it can to manage this explosive situation, including rolling out 4G and building up its backhaul facilities.
But the post also calls upon the government to get more spectrum licenses to the wireless industry (which the FCC is indeed trying to do) while sparing AT&T any "onerous new net neutrality regulations."
"Perhaps what might help most of all is for agreement to be reached on net neutrality so we can finally satisfy concerns and put that issue behind us," Marsh concludes. "Then we could focus all our attention on a more urgent matter struggling for oxygen right now, and that's the National Broadband Plan."
"Perhaps what might help most of all is for agreement to be reached on net neutrality" I was under the impression that net neutrality was clearly understood until Google and Verizon (now joined by AT&T) decided that they wanted to move the goal posts.
