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That ostensible problem pertains, not to mobile broadband
service, but instead to mobile voice service. In particular,
mobile petitioners argue that, if the public switched network
can be defined to use both IP addresses and telephone
numbers, mobile voice service would no longer qualify as an
“interconnected service” because telephone users cannot
establish a connection to IP users. The result, mobile
petitioners submit, is that the one network everyone agrees
was intended to qualify as a commercial mobile service—
mobile voice—would necessarily become a private mobile
service. We are unconvinced.
As a starting point, the Commission’s Order takes up the
proper classification of mobile broadband, not mobile voice.
The Commission thus did not conduct a formal assessment of
whether mobile voice would qualify as an interconnected
service under the revised definition of public switched
network. But were the Commission to address that issue in a
future proceeding, it presumably would note that, regardless
of whether mobile voice users can “communicate to” mobile
broadband users from their telephones, they can “receive
communication from” mobile broadband users through VoIP
for the reasons already explained. 47 C.F.R. § 20.3. That
capability would suffice to render mobile voice an
“interconnected service” under the Commission’s regulatory
definition of that term. Id.
Moreover, insofar as the Commission may be asked in
the future to formally address whether mobile voice qualifies
as an interconnected service, the Commission could assess at
that time whether there exists the “capability” of
communications in the reverse direction, i.e., the capability of
mobile voice users to “communicate to” IP users from their
telephones.
Id.
We note that the Commission had
information before it in this proceeding indicating that a
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