LONDON: It is possible to run Netflix on BlackBerry because of a partnership with Amazon to bring Android apps to BlackBerry users. BlackBerry CEO John Chen made a net neutrality plan.
One part of his proposal in particular has garnered attention: Chen thinks net neutrality rules in the US should force Apple and Netflix to make apps for BlackBerry hardware.
Net neutrality proposals generally focus on Internet service providers, banning discrimination against Internet content and applications. Chen wants makers of software to have to follow neutrality rules as well.
While BlackBerry makes its own messaging service available for multiple platforms, Apple has not returned the favor. Netflix has also “discriminated against BlackBerry customers” by not releasing a BlackBerry app. Chen wrote:
Apple generally makes software only for its own hardware, with exceptions such as iTunes and iCloud for Windows. Netflix said in 2013 that it would not build an app for BlackBerry because of the platform’s low market share. Netflix does have apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, and it is possible to run Netflix on BlackBerry because of a partnership with Amazon to bring Android apps to BlackBerry users.
Chen’s argument is not totally unprecedented; small cable companies argued as far back as 2009 that online video providers such as ESPN violate the spirit of net neutrality by charging discriminatory rates to Internet providers and preventing users from accessing video when their Internet provider doesn’t pay up.
Chen wrote that “policymakers should focus on more than just the carriers, who play only one role in the overall broadband Internet ecosystem. The carriers are like the railways of the last century, building the tracks to carry traffic to all points throughout the country. But the railway cars travelling on those tracks are, in today’s Internet world, controlled not by the carriers but by content and applications providers.”
Wireless carriers should be required to follow rules similar to those applied to 700MHz C block spectrum licenses purchased by Verizon, he wrote. Those rules prohibit Verizon “from restricting customers from using devices and accessing applications or any other lawful content of their choice on the C Block network” or “disabling features on mobile devices they sell to customers, or rigging those devices to prohibit their use on competitors’ networks,
erizon won the entire C block in the 2008 auction and has lived under those rules ever since,” Chen wrote. “The rules have withstood the test of time and have functioned well. There is no evidence the rules have failed to achieve their purpose or have failed to protect the principle of an open wireless Internet. With that positive experience to guide us, why not extend the C-Block rules to all mobile broadband spectrum and all carriers
The Federal Communications Commission is on the verge of issuing new net neutrality rules that may apply both to fixed Internet providers and wireless carriers. The FCC is likely to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act in order to enforce those rules—but Chen argued that applying Title II to mobile broadband “seems excessive to us.” He believes the open access requirements on Verizon’s spectrum should be applied to other carriers without using Title II.
But Chen didn’t explain what authority the FCC should use to enforce those rules beyond the special case of the C Block. The FCC’s previous attempt to enforce net neutrality rules without reclassifying broadband providers was thrown out in court after a Verizon challenge.
