Unfortunately for Skype, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's CTIA keynote was not an April Fool's joke.

Because wireless has been a good little industry and embraced openness, Martin said Tuesday that he would recommend that his fellow commissioners dismiss Skype's request to apply the Carterfone principles to the wireless industry.

"In light of the [wireless] industry's embrace of a more open wireless platform, it would be premature to adopt any other requirements across the industry," Martin told a receptive crowd at the annual CTIA Wireless Conference. "Thus, today I will circulate to my fellow commissioners an order dismissing a petition for declaratory ruling filed by Skype."

Carterfone dates back to 1968, when the FCC opened up the Bell network to devices not produced by the AT&T wireline network, paving the way for devices like answering machines, fax machines, computer modems, and early dial-up Internet.

Skype argued in a February 2007 petition to the FCC that the same principles should apply to the wireless industry, citing what it considers is a lack of wireless competition and an unwillingness to allow certain applications - like Skype - on U.S. cell phones.

The wireless industry was having none of that.

Skype's petition is "deeply flawed," AT&T said in a May 2007 filing."Carterfone was directed at a single entity - the vertically integrated Bell system, [which] dominated wireless telecommunications as well as the adjacent market for telephone equipment," according to AT&T. "Today's wireless industry bears none of those characteristics."

"Imposing new regulation would disrupt the flourishing and innovative U.S. market and disserve U.S. wireless consumers," Verizon wrote to the FCC in August.

Chairman Martin agreed with the wireless industry.

"Competition in the wireless industry has also led to lower prices, higher usage and adoption rates, and technological innovation," he said Tuesday.

Martin praised the industry's embrace of open standards like the Open Handset Alliance and the open access requirements of the c-block in the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction.

"In less than a year, many of you have evolved from vocal opponents to vocal proponents, embracing the open platform concept for your entire network," he said.

Interest groups like Free Press, the Open Internet Coalition, and Public Knowledge, however, were not impressed. It is too soon to determine whether the wireless industry will actually follow through with their pledges of openness, they said.

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