from the what-about-price-gouging-talks dept.
The Federal Communications Commission says it has had "productive" discussions with Comcast and T-Mobile USA about whether data cap exemptions conflict with the goals of net neutrality.
The FCC sent letters last month asking Comcast, T-Mobile, and AT&T to meet with commission staff by January 15. The FCC has met with Comcast and T-Mobile, but not AT&T. A meeting with AT&T has been scheduled.
"FCC staff had productive discussions with company representatives as part of a larger policy examination of trends in the market. We cannot comment on the details of individual meetings," FCC spokesperson Kim Hart told Ars.
When asked if there will be any action taken against the companies, Hart said, "This is not an enforcement action or investigation, as the Chairman [Tom Wheeler] has made clear. Direct dialogue with companies is an important way in which the Commission can watch and learn, and consistent with our approach in the Open Internet Order."
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From the Ars-ticle:
T-Mobile USA's controversial "Binge On" program is throttling all HTML5 video streams and direct video downloads to about 1.5Mbps, according to tests run by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Binge On, unveiled in November, is enabled by default for all T-Mobile customers and downgrades video resolution to 480p in order to reduce data usage. Companies that cooperate with T-Mobile can stream video without counting against customers' high-speed data limits. That means you can watch Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and about another 20 services without using up your data.
But all video is downgraded, regardless of whether it gets a data cap exemption, which has led to a rift between T-Mobile and Google's YouTube.
John M. Donnelly, a senior writer at CQ Roll Call, said he was trying to talk with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly one-on-one after a news conference when two plainclothes guards pinned him against a wall with the backs of their bodies.
“Not only did they get in between me and O’Rielly but they put their shoulders together and simultaneously backed me up into the wall and pinned me to the wall for about 10 seconds just as I started to say, “Commissioner O’Rielly, I have a question,” Donnelly said Friday.
Donnelly said he was stopped long enough to allow O’Rielly to walk away.
Donnelly, who also happens to be chair of the National Press Club Press Freedom team, said he was then forced out of the building after being asked why he had not posed his question during the news conference.
O'Rielly apologized to Donnelly on Twitter, saying he didn't recognize Donnelly in the hallway. "I saw security put themselves between you, me and my staff. I didn't see anyone put a hand on you. I'm sorry this occurred."
According to the publication for which the reporter works (archived copy),
Senators, including Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, are warning the Federal Communications Commission about its treatment of reporters after a CQ Roll Call reporter was manhandled Thursday.
“The Federal Communications Commission needs to take a hard look at why this happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. As The Washington Post pointed out, it’s standard operating procedure for reporters to ask questions of public officials after meetings and news conferences,” the Iowa Republican said. “It happens all day, every day. There’s no good reason to put hands on a reporter who’s doing his or her job.”
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday January 20 2016, @12:22AM
Access providers should provide dumb pipes, so the best content isn't encumbered.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:33AM
"Dumb pipes" == "Insightful"
I see how this works. Echo! Echo! Echo chamber!!
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by takyon on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:41AM
Everybody gets mod points at the same time, about 90 minutes ago.
The poster had the only comment for about 30 minutes.
Coincidence?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:46AM
So the alternatives were, mod Insightful or reply Me Too! Still an echo chamber.
(Score: 3, Informative) by NotSanguine on Wednesday January 20 2016, @02:56AM
So the alternatives were, mod Insightful or reply Me Too! Still an echo chamber.
Not even close. If you are unsatisfied with the commentary/moderation, perhaps you could make arguments of your own which aren't just, as you say, "an echo chamber."
Do you feel that ISPs should also be content distributors? If so, why? If not, why not?
Do you think that we (meaning the various governments of these United States) should take some sort of action? If so, why? If not, why not?
Do you think that we should leave businesses the hell alone to do as they please? If so, why? If not, why not?
What is it that you think?
Do you think? If so, why? If not -- well that's a non-starter, isn't it?
tl;dr: If you have something to contribute to the discussion, please do. We're all ears (eyes?). Just a crazy thought.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday January 20 2016, @03:29AM
So the alternatives were, mod Insightful or reply Me Too! Still an echo chamber.
... said the guy repeating himself.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @04:28AM
Dude! You're awesome! If I say you're awesome, can I wipe my ass with you?
Every stupid asshole repeats the words "dumb pipe" because every other stupid asshole repeats the words "dumb pipe" because those are the words that stupid assholes say.
Repeating oneself is completely different from claiming social solidarity by mindlessly repeating the popular opinions of others.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday January 20 2016, @05:00AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday January 20 2016, @04:28PM
He's probably offended by the term, because he is a dumb pipe. Maybe he would be less offended if we refer to him as mindless tubing.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday January 20 2016, @12:55AM
The Federal Communications Commission says it has had "productive" discussions with Comcast and T-Mobile USA about whether data cap exemptions conflict with the goals of net neutrality.
I love how productive is in quotes there. It's almost like productive doesn't mean: "Comcast and T-Mobile do not have an interest in who is providing the bits flying through their lines."
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Funny) by NotSanguine on Wednesday January 20 2016, @02:22AM
Productive (adj.):
1. Confirm payment schedule for FCC commissioners;
2. Smack FCC commissioners around while screaming "Who's your daddy, bitch!?!";
3. Provide FCC commissioners with new marching orders
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 20 2016, @07:31PM
I think those quotes are intended to identify a....you know.....quote.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:39AM
If it's not 100 TB/s it's fucking too slow.
And throttle everyone except me because I'm the important cumsumer and the rest of you can Suck It!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:50AM
I'm smarter than the smart pipes, so everything I do is exempted. Data cap my ass.
(Score: 4, Informative) by snufu on Wednesday January 20 2016, @01:53AM
Get commercial internet providers out of the FCC conversation altogether.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @02:01AM
Fiber is like, wired. Wireless is the future, fool.
There was that idea to provide municipal wireless everywhere without data caps or throttling or any other bullshit limits. It was called WiMAX. WiMAX is dead now because fools like you hated it. Fools like you demanded limited Internet and you got limited Internet. You fools.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @02:38AM
Oh God Yes!! Say what everyone is thinking. Google Fiber gonna fix everything!
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday January 20 2016, @03:34AM
Thanks to Google Fiber coming to other cities both the local ISPs shat their pants and one of them has FttH already installed and the other is probably a year away.
The point of Google Fiber was never to wire every city, it was to wire enough of the cities that the incumbent ISPs would be frightened having to do it themselves rather than lose everything to Google.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @04:34AM
You know some of us don't give a shit about fiber and those of us couldn't care less about FASTER SHIT OH GOD MY SPEED TEST IS FASTER THAN YOUR FUCKING SPEED TEST.
So fuck Google and fuck you.
But please continue your dick-waving contest.
(Score: 2) by snufu on Thursday January 21 2016, @04:25AM
I said municipal fiber. Google fiber is just another commercial ISP, who should be trusted no more than Comcast/ATT.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 21 2016, @02:27AM
Agreed. And get the MPAA/RIAA out of the negotiations for new treaties altogether. International negotiations should be publicly debated and the RIAA/MPAA should not have a special seat above anyone else. and certainly not a special seat within secretive negotiations.
They shouldn't even take a special part of the debate for copy protection extensions. IP laws shouldn't be a negotiation between what industry wants and what the public wants. It should only be what the public wants (and industry should have no larger a voice than anyone else).
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2016, @03:22AM
File a complaint about your provider if they do this kind of incentivization. Use this nice web interface on the FCC site, they will forward the complaint to the company in question witch issues a response. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us [fcc.gov]
I sent in my complaint to t-mobile about their misleading neutrality claims conflicting with their new video "optimization"/throttling. I got a nice voice mail and paper letter in response. Whats more important though is that the FCC know that people are pissed off and sending lots of complaints.
Also consider contacting your congressmen. I haven't gotten to that yet, but I'll send a nice complaint about how allowing such practices is basically requiring content providers and carriers to negotiate deals to complete on even terms with established players is horrible for small business, both content providers and ISPs: its the classic monopoly problem, and results in reduced competition and artificially inflated costs for the consumer. There is no benefit to this for any humans (other than the owners of the monopolies).
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday January 20 2016, @02:54PM
I got a nice voice mail and paper letter in response.
Presumably telling you you're a valued customer and they care about you and go fuck yourself?
Whats more important though is that the FCC know that people are pissed off and sending lots of complaints.
Also consider contacting your congressmen. I haven't gotten to that yet, but I'll send a nice complaint
Ah, good. Bcc: for the win :)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday January 20 2016, @07:11PM
There is no benefit to this for any humans (other than the owners of the monopolies).
And for the congressman. Don't forget the campaign contributions.