Slashdot Mirror
AT&T, Verizon Tell FCC To Back Off On Net Neutrality Complaints (theverge.com)
ATT and Verizon have responded to the FCC's letters that argued the way the two companies handle the practice of exempting their own video apps from data caps on customers' smartphones can hurt competition and consumers. The Verge reports: The companies defended the programs, which allow select data sources to not count toward customers' data plans through a process known as zero-rating. Although it did not explicitly ban them in new net neutrality rules laid out last year, the FCC has been critical of such programs, arguing that they can be used to hurt competition by unfairly favoring some data, creating an uneven playing field for businesses. In a noticeably pointed response, ATT takes a similar line to the position it's held all along: programs like Data Free TV, which allows customers to use data from ATT-owned DirecTV without it counting toward a plan, are not anticompetitive, but are simply a perk consumers enjoy. Verizon, in its response, makes similar arguments defending its FreeBee data program, which allows data from Verizon-owned Go90 to not count toward a data plan. "FreeBee data provides tangible benefits to consumers by increasing the amount of what they can do and watch online, at no cost to them," the company's response says.
Makes no difference anyway. Ajit Pai is gonna invalidate all these rules anyway.
Good to know that Trump wasn't gonna be beholden to special interests, lobbyists and donors. LOL @ the retards who actually believed that.
They wouldn't be doing this if they didn't know that Trump was going to come down the pipe and back them up.
The FCC may as well give up at this point. I mean, hell, ALL US regulatory commissions may as well give up at this point, since he's gonna gut and destroy anything that prevents profits from being made, regardless of the impact that will have on health, the environment, or the well-being of US citizens.
OK I'm going to play Devil's advocate here.
it seems to me that if they want to not count bandwidth for certain services against your allowance, that can only be a good thing. I mean you're actually still free to use the other services if you want.
I'd have an issue if they tried blocking competition completely but as long as you ultimately have a free choice its no worse than Microsoft having their any of their browser/search engine/storefront/whatever open by default on Windows, until you explicitly choose an alternative.
The real problem is that we have companies handling both content and transport. This is a problem for the FTC. AT&T et. al. should be required to split their ISP and network operations from their content operations. Then network neutrality would be a matter of preventing content providers from bribing the ISP and network operators.
Not if the competitors don't own the network, they can't. To have fair competition, ATT and VZW could offer unlimited one-service streaming for a set price, and let the consumer chose the service they want it applied to. Then, let their own streaming services compete equitably with Netflix, or Amazon, or Hulu, or whatever a customer chooses.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Which T-Mobile has already done. Not to mention they're pretty much zero-rating any service that asks for it, even going as far as zero-rating ATT's own Data Free TV program.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
Companies should provide content OR networking, NOT both.
Go well
...and they're pretty damn sure he'll be much more "reasonable" than the current administration. And the cocky bastards are almost certainly right.
Say good bye to the internet as it has been (more or less) for decades.
Say hello to tiered access. On Comcast and want Netflix? Well, that would be our Multimedia package, which includes 30 hours of unlimited (non-high-def) Netflix per month, as well as 100 hours (480p or less) YouTube streaming per month! Only an additional 19.99 beyond basic!
On TimeWarner and want BitTorrent access? Well that's unavailable for residential access, however Business Class internet permits BitTorrent use, and is only 99/month more than basic residential access!
Frankly I can't imagine the shenanigans they're going to get up to when The Orange One tells the FCC to sit-down and shut up.
Well, his devoted minions, really, das Trumpenstien probably won't give two shits what's going on at the FCC, as long as it doesn't cost his empire money and his friends are happy.
I really hope I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be bad, folks. And the Internet as we know it getting fucked over is probably gonna be the least of it.
If the government owned and ran the internet (wires) then net neutrality would not be an issue. Having a for profit entity own critical infrastructure without serious regulation is a barrier to free market capitalism in the same way that the landline phone monopoly (prior to breakup) blocked companies from offering modems, fax machines, and other goods and services.