It was April Fool’s Day in Vegas. But Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin wasn’t fooling around.

Martin told the CTIA Wireless meeting in Las Vegas he would try to shoot down Skype’s application to require wireless operators to permit any device on their networks.

Skype filed a petition with the FCC a year ago to apply the 1968 Carterfone decision to wireless networks. In that decision, the FCC gave telephone customers the right to connect their own gear to the public phone network so long as the customer’s equipment did no harm to the network.

The landmark decision made it possible for devices such as modems to be connected to phone network. Without Carterfone, you wouldn’t be reading these words.

But Martin said the FCC should reject the Skype petition. He maintained there was no need for the Commission to act since the industry already is moving in this direction on its own.

As an example, he cited Verizon Wireless’ plans to open its network to any device by year’s end. And he also mentioned the involvement of T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. in Google Inc.'s Open Handset Alliance, which is developing new software for phones.

"In light of the industry's embrace of this more open approach, I think it's premature for the commission to place any other requirements on these networks," Martin said. "Today I'm going to circulate to my fellow commissioners an order dismissing the petition by Skype that would apply requirements to existing wireless networks."
Two other commissioners must agree for the order to take effect.

FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps won’t be among them: “This is not the time for the FCC to declare victory and withdraw from the fight for open wireless networks. While we are all encouraged by preliminary commitments from some of the major carriers, we haven’t seen the details yet on how they are going to proceed—and the devil is always in the details, isn’t it?

“I would be a lot happier if Chairman Martin had come out today in favor of a strong and unequivocal FCC commitment to non-discriminatory, pro-consumer conduct in the wireless world.”

Chris Libertelli, senior director of government and regulatory affairs for Skype, said the news was a letdown and potentially a step back toward the dark pre-Carterphone decision days.

"Without Commission oversight in this area, the FCC will have taken a step backward away from openness, and toward a policy of ‘trust the carriers,’” he said. While we are cautiously optimistic that the carriers will deliver greater openness, unfortunately, if the FCC acts on the Chairman’s recommendation, it will have given up the tools to protect consumers if they do not."

The Carterfone decision opened the way for telecommunications and Internet communications. Do we trust the marketplace? Or do we need a little help from government to keep the network open? What do you think?

Let the FCC know at fccinfo@fcc.gov