AT&T Facing Net Neutrality Complaint Over FaceTime Restrictions

Today several public interest groups, including Public Knowledge, announced plans to file a net neutrality complaint with the FCC over AT&T's restriction of FaceTime on iPads and iPhones. Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said, "AT&T’s decision to block FaceTime unless a customer pays for voice and text minutes she doesn’t need is a clear violation of the FCC’s Open Internet rules. It’s particularly outrageous that AT&T is requiring this for iPad users, given that this device isn’t even capable of making voice calls. AT&T's actions are incredibly harmful to all of its customers, including the deaf, immigrant families and others with relatives overseas, who depend on mobile video apps to communicate with friends and family." The groups have sent a letter (PDF) to AT&T asking them to reconsider their policy. The communications giant has previously responded to complaints by proclaiming their transparency and saying that charging more for being able to use FaceTime over mobile broadband is a "reasonable restriction."

Comments

Re:Pffftttt...no surprise here

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

No, not even close. (I am curious where the word 'unlimited' came from...)

We pay for AT&T to deliver bits, we don't want AT&T to dictate what those bits can be used for and increase the price based on that.

Clear enough, or are you actually dumb enough to think AT&T has your best interests in mind?

Re:Pffftttt...no surprise here

[zoloto]

It's called an iPad data plan. Pick up a sim card for an iPad at an AT&T store, plug it into your phone and visit https://dcp2.att.com/OEPNDClient/ to sign up for one using your iPhone's information. Next go to unlockit.co.nz on your phone (using wifi, of course) and change your APN using their "Create APN" link on the bottom and pick the option "Broadband". Install the new APN profile and presto, your iPhone (or other device if you know how to change your APN) is now usable on an iPad data plan.

I've been using this since the iPad first came out a couple years ago and doing so on my iPhone 3GS and now 4/4S. You can use Skype/Facetime/Mumble or whatever you want all over the cell connection.

But yes, you do pay for an 'open internet access plan'. They don't block any sites or services - but they're trying to do just that with FaceTime and should (probably will) be smacked back by the FCC.

Re:Pffftttt...no surprise here

[GameboyRMH]

The calls are standard SIP w/ H.264 codecs (open?) but it uses a proprietary Apple-hosted HTTP-based lookup service to associate your phone number or email with your SIP URI. AFAIK they've released no details - that bit of info was gained from some reverse-engineering done on the Maemo forums.