A consortium of consumer groups is planning to urge federal regulators to clarify how much control cellphone companies can have over the messages and services delivered over their networks.

In a petition to be filed with the Federal Communications Commission today, these groups say the agency should prohibit wireless carriers from blocking text messages sent by any company, nonprofit group or political campaign. These groups -- including Public Knowledge, Free Press, Media Access Project, Consumers Union and the New America Foundation -- also say carriers should deliver all text messages to their customers, including those sent by competing phone services.

"Mobile carriers currently can and do arbitrarily decide what customers to serve and which speech to allow on text messages, refusing to serve those that they find controversial or that compete with the mobile carriers' services," the petition says. "This type of discrimination would be unthinkable and illegal in the world of voice communications, and it should be so in the world of text messaging as well."

It is the latest in a string of complaints and petitions filed with the FCC, pushing commissioners to take a stronger stance on the issue known as net neutrality, which refers to an effort to bar Internet and wireless providers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T from giving preferential treatment to content on their networks. ...

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