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So while we don't get too much into politics and general telecommunications news, the issue of "Network Neutrality" is highly relevant for all you WMExperts out there. And make no mistake about it: we here at WME strongly advocate the "dump pipe" model for mobile internet access.

Net Neutrality, for those who aren't in the know, is basically what we have now: your ISP cannot dictate what computer, software, OS you use to access the Internet and they cannot arbitrarily control network speeds, giving primacy to their own content while shafting their competitors (although Bittorent has thrown a wrench into this i.e. "traffic shaping").

However all is not well, as many ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and even Sprint/XOHM) are either advocating or flat out implementing restrictions on how you can use the internet. This is what many in the industry (Amazon.com, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Skype, Yahoo, etc.) all fear, as it takes the choice away from the consumer and gives the power to the ISPs. Those against net-neutrality are even getting bills passed in their favor to benefit their interests. Yikes.

(Still unsure of what is at stake and what all of this means? Click here to get a primer.)

Good news though: President-elect Obama has appointed two net neutrality advocates to their FCC review team (they guide the President on pertinent FCC issues). While this doesn't guarantee a positive outcome in this debate, it sure feels a lot better.

Considering Windows Mobile users are literally at the cutting edge of mobile technology--we're arguably the most open and unrestricted of the iPhone/Android/RIM crowd--this issue of net neutrality is what drives our community, resulting in a trickle down effect for everyone else. Bringing things back to mobile -- the line between your broadband pipe for your desktop and your mobile internet is inevitably going to blur in the future, so it's going to apply. Even if we're wrong on that prediction, more restrictions on your desktop would likely make it easier to add restrictions to mobile broadband.

Bully to Skype, who recently used Tim Wu's stirring (though academic, in both senses of the word) call for Mobile Net Neutrality as support for a petition to the FCC. At issue is that carriers are deliberately blocking their software, and Skype believes that current laws on the books say that's not so. I don't have a lot of confidence this will go anywhere (neither does the linked Ars Technica article), but it's nice to see people lining up.

Whether the carriers are blocking me from updating my WM phone to the latest ROM because they're overcautious, trying to get me to pay for walled-garden-style services I should be able to access for free elsewhere, or hiking SMS prices even as the cost to them is dropping, US carriers are really getting on my nerves lately.

Skype yesterday petitioned the FCC to lay the smack down on wireless phone carriers who "limit subscribers' right to run software communications applications of their choosing" (read: Skype software). Skype wants the agency to more stringently apply the famous 1968 Carterfone decision that allowed consumers to hook any device up to the phone network, so long as it did not harm the network. In Skype's eyes, that means allowing any software or applications to run on any devices that access the network.

Read: Skype asks FCC to open up cellular networks