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from the also-have-great-deals-on-oceanfront-property-in-Kansas dept.
Charter tries to convince FCC that broadband customers want data caps
Charter Communications has claimed to the Federal Communications Commission that broadband users enjoy having Internet plans with data caps, in a filing arguing that Charter should be allowed to impose caps on its Spectrum Internet service starting next year.
Charter isn't currently allowed to impose data caps because of conditions the FCC placed on its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable. The data-cap condition is scheduled to expire on May 18, 2023, but Charter in June petitioned the FCC to let the condition expire two years early, in May 2021.
With consumer-advocacy groups and Internet users opposing the petition, Charter filed a response with the FCC last week, saying that plans with data caps are "popular."
"Contrary to Stop The Cap's assertion [in an FCC filing] that consumers 'hate' data caps, the marketplace currently shows that broadband service plans incorporating data caps or other usage-based pricing mechanisms are often popular when the limits are sufficiently high to satisfy the vast majority of users," Charter told the FCC.
Or you could offer some kind of software that shows which users are hogging the network.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @08:55AM (1 child)
"Step 3. Redefine "extreme" using averages and percentages to force downward scope creep."
It's not even just about forced downward scope creep. It's about the fact that, naturally, our bandwidth needs increase with time. Content on the Internet gets larger and larger. For instance you have 4K then 8K and then multiple devices, etc... windows updates end up taking more and more space (don't ask me why), files that you typically download get larger, etc...
They want to put a stop to this progress. They want to limit it to their convenience. and with an artificial lack of competition they can if only the government would not regulate their monopolies.
Plus all of the content that the Internet provides competes with their content (ie: cable). So putting caps would encourage people to buy their overpriced, commercial ridden, cable services.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @12:32PM
(plus android and iPhone/iPad/etc... devices take more space just for regular app and OS updates)