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posted by takyon on Monday September 12 2016, @08:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-want-my-internet-tv dept.

Jon Brodkin over at Ars Technica is reporting on a filing submitted to the FCC by Netflix last week asking thc FCC to "declare that home Internet data caps are unreasonable and that they limit customers' ability to watch online video."

From the article:

Netflix submitted a filing last week for the FCC's annual investigation of broadband deployment, a review that is mandated by Congress in Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act. Specifically, Congress requires the FCC to determine whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion and "take immediate action" to accelerate deployment if it's not happening to the commission's satisfaction.

The commission's assessment generally focuses on availability and speed, but Netflix wants the commission to add data caps to the mix. "Data caps (especially low data caps) and usage-based pricing ('UBP') discourage a consumer's consumption of broadband, and may impede the ability of some households to watch Internet television in a manner and amount that they would like," Netflix wrote. "For this reason, the Commission should hold that data caps on fixed-­line networks ­­and low data caps on mobile networks­­ may unreasonably limit Internet television viewing and are inconsistent with Section 706."

[...] Netflix argued that a 300GB-per-month allotment "is required just to meet the Internet television needs of an average American," without accounting for other things consumers want to do on the Internet, like Web browsing and downloading games and applications. "The Commission should recognize that data caps and UBP on fixed line networks are an unnecessary constraint on advanced telecommunications capability," Netflix said.

Comcast, the nation's largest home Internet provider, recently raised its caps from 300GB to 1TB, making it easier for customers to watch online video instead of Comcast's own cable TV service. But consumers' data needs are increasing quickly enough that "today's 'above-average' Internet consumer is tomorrow's average Internet consumer," Netflix said.

Data caps also aren't necessary for network management, Netflix argued. The online video provider pointed to a government survey from 2014 in which ISPs told regulators that congestion wasn't a problem on their networks. ISPs have alternatively described data caps "as a way to align consumers' use of the network with what they pay," Netflix said.

So what say you, Soylentils? Do data caps discriminate against online video providers?

Do data caps negatively impact other types of Internet usage?

Is online video the bulk of the data you consume through your Internet connection?

Do you have a data cap? If so, what is it and how often do you exceed it? If you do exceed it, what steps does your ISP take in response?


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @11:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @11:02PM (#400996)

    Do tell. Considering my ISP counts each individual frame regardless of content, tell me how I would get around that? Even SYN packets dropped by my firewall and retransmissions increase my data usage amount.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @11:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @11:14PM (#401003)

    Find a protocol that isn't counted.

    • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday September 12 2016, @11:49PM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday September 12 2016, @11:49PM (#401020)

      If frames are bieng counted, that is at the data-link layer. That will count everything running at the network layer.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @12:15AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @12:15AM (#401030)

        Thanks for pointing that out, for some reason the last sentence of my post was left out. It was something to the effect of: "I've checked my data usage and the only way their numbers match mine is if every single logged packet sent or received also has the requisite DOCSIS headers and FEC added."