Law firm Arent Fox has posted an important piece over at their corporate site regarding 'common carrier' status and how it relates to text messaging. Head over to their site to read the entire piece. The excerpt below is from an overview of a presentation they'll be giving about this topic at the Bisnow Growth Expo:
Can text messages save the economy? Maybe. But Arent Fox’s Mike Hazzard and Jason Koslofsky say the US will have to update common carriage principals and regulations first. Common carriage principals are applied to the Internet, allowing consumers and businesses to communicate with little interference from network operators. Giving them the freedom to do business, build business, and boost our economy. However, since the FCC has yet to clarify how text messaging (aka SMS) applies to common carriage, Luddite lawyers are seeking to have archaic regulations (like the 20-year-old regulations on “junk faxing”) applied to text messaging. This means carriers may block and censor texting at will, and charge any price they want (i.e. limited openness to do business). Find out how regulation updates for texting could boost our economy in Arent Fox’s latest legal alert here.
Comments