FCC chairman slams Verizon's 'all the kids do it' defense to data throttling
During a news conference on Friday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler responded to Verizon's claims that its planned data throttling program is a "widely accepted" practice, saying that an "all the kids do it" argument is not justifiable.
FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler
According to The Wall Street Journal, Wheeler chided Verizon for its defense of an upcoming "network optimization" change, which consisted of pointing fingers at other U.S. cellular providers, calling it an attempt to "reframe the issue."
"'All the kids do it' was never something that worked with me when I was growing up and didn't work with my kids," Wheeler said.
In July, Verizon announced plans to slow down data speeds for a select group of high-use subscribers when its 4G LTE network bogs down. The shift is scheduled to take effect in October, when users with grandfathered-in unlimited data plans may see slower than normal data speeds when performing high bandwidth operations like streaming high-definition video.
"My concern in this instance is that it is moving from technology and engineering issues into business issues," Wheeler said. "Such as choosing between different subscribers based on your economic relationship with them."
The statement echoes arguments raised when the FCC chief sent a letter to Verizon CEO Daniel Mead last week, voicing concern over the proposed throttling plan.
Today's comments were made in response to a rebuttal letter from the telecom's SVP of Federal Regulatory Affairs Kathleen Grillo, who defended "network optimization" by saying the "practice has been widely accepted with little or no controversy."
When smartphones first hit market, cellular providers like Verizon and AT&T offered unlimited data plans to help spur on sales. A boom in popularity, largely driven by Apple's iPhone, left the telcos with an infrastructure poorly equipped to deal with the glut of data-hungry subscribers, which in turn prompted the halt of unlimited plans.
At the time, both Verizon and AT&T let subscribers keep their all-you-can-eat data allotments as long as they continued to pay the same top-tier monthly fee in perpetuity. With faster wireless technology and ever-increasing demands for more data, however, companies have started to throttle speeds for power users. Verizon, for example, says the practice is an appropriate response to deal with those subscribers who use a "disproportionate amount of network resources and have an out-sized effect on the network."
An FCC spokesperson said other U.S. carriers have today received letters asking similar questions to those posed to Verizon.
FCC Chairman Thomas WheelerAccording to The Wall Street Journal, Wheeler chided Verizon for its defense of an upcoming "network optimization" change, which consisted of pointing fingers at other U.S. cellular providers, calling it an attempt to "reframe the issue."
"'All the kids do it' was never something that worked with me when I was growing up and didn't work with my kids," Wheeler said.
In July, Verizon announced plans to slow down data speeds for a select group of high-use subscribers when its 4G LTE network bogs down. The shift is scheduled to take effect in October, when users with grandfathered-in unlimited data plans may see slower than normal data speeds when performing high bandwidth operations like streaming high-definition video.
"My concern in this instance is that it is moving from technology and engineering issues into business issues," Wheeler said. "Such as choosing between different subscribers based on your economic relationship with them."
The statement echoes arguments raised when the FCC chief sent a letter to Verizon CEO Daniel Mead last week, voicing concern over the proposed throttling plan.
Today's comments were made in response to a rebuttal letter from the telecom's SVP of Federal Regulatory Affairs Kathleen Grillo, who defended "network optimization" by saying the "practice has been widely accepted with little or no controversy."
When smartphones first hit market, cellular providers like Verizon and AT&T offered unlimited data plans to help spur on sales. A boom in popularity, largely driven by Apple's iPhone, left the telcos with an infrastructure poorly equipped to deal with the glut of data-hungry subscribers, which in turn prompted the halt of unlimited plans.
At the time, both Verizon and AT&T let subscribers keep their all-you-can-eat data allotments as long as they continued to pay the same top-tier monthly fee in perpetuity. With faster wireless technology and ever-increasing demands for more data, however, companies have started to throttle speeds for power users. Verizon, for example, says the practice is an appropriate response to deal with those subscribers who use a "disproportionate amount of network resources and have an out-sized effect on the network."
An FCC spokesperson said other U.S. carriers have today received letters asking similar questions to those posed to Verizon.
Comments
What sort kind of a shill defends a global corporate conglomerate for data throttling, by deflecting attention to the FCC?
Wheeler's just angry because Verizon called the FCC out on their bulls**t.
Help me understand which part of what FCC did is bullshit?
Anyone remember "Unlimited Internet" when the @home network existed?
Yeah... times a changing.
See over time, the marketing for something good eventually backfires when it becomes too good due to grandfathering.
Today we have either "umetered" or "capped" internet plans along with specific tiers of bandwidth which is easily imposed by technical constraints of the customer premises equipment. With wireless this is impractical, so instead the throttle at the connection level. My LTE connection has a far superior symmetric bandwidth (at 4:1 D:U) than the cable companies asymmetric bandwidth (which is 20:1 D:U)
It seems to me that no one, on either side of the issue, is interested in standards of quality for customers. Promises of speeds up to X are meaningless if the average speed actually provided is only 50% 0f X. Flat rate should not be defined as speeds flattening to near zero after X megabytes. If internet connectivity is to be a necessary utility, then there needs to be discussion about quality. You're not getting electricity if the current is too weak to light a bulb, nor are you getting water if only a trickle drips from the faucet.
I am not defending the FCC for one second here, rather thinking out loud ... We are also have the original grandfathered unlimited data plan with AT&T and keep wondering if the apparent high cost is worth the 'unlimited. The reason we have not bailed is it's nice to look at the monthly $180 bill (for two iPhones) and see $00.00 next to every single data entry whether full speed or slowed ... (I have not experienced any slowing but then we don't watch Netflix on our phones). I shudder to think of not having the plan to be honest. When, once a year, we are driving from Florida to New England, or flying on vacation (in the USA), we can use the iPhones to stream maps, music whatever ... all for free. I am pretty sure it is still worth the higher base rate for the plan. Not having ever had any other plans we are believing this on faith to some extent. Does anyone think we are crazy to keep the plans when there are cheaper plans with paid data? I realize the question is almost impossible to answer without serious data analysis but my gut says it is worth keeping.
Yeah. I know it's got nothing to do with the thread topic.
But doesn't that just blow you away!
My condolences to them all.
For $90 a month you can do the same on T-Mobile.
Not crazy at all. I too have a 'old' plan with a set number of minutes, and unlimited data. I used to never go over 10 GBs, but for the last 2 months I've used 15-20 GBs. A paid data plan for me would cost me much more than I'm paying now.
It all depends. If you're keeping your unlimited data plan for that one time a year you make that drive, and the remaining 11 months you use very little data, then you could be saving enough money every month to pay for that one month of overages.
Like you said, we need more information on how much data you use. I still have 3 phones on unlimited, but we all use almost 5 gbs each. Their 15gb shared data is more than what we pay for, so we'll stick it out for awhile.
When, and only when, the network throughput is constrained (the network is incapable of meeting the demands of all current consumers), something has to give. If you think about three classes of consumers, would you choose to share the "pain" equally or favor some classes over others. Class one are consumers who haven't used much data (during the current month or some time period). Class two are considers who have been using a ton of data--but are specifically on a plan where they pay for every additional byte. Class three are consumers who choose to pay a fixed price for "unlimited data" AND have been among the highest consumers of data during the current time period. I would argue that it's is very reasonable that this third class of consumers would have their bandwidth throttled (not turned off, or "crippled") to maintain the highest possible quality of service for the other two classes. Remember, that a consumer on an unlimited plan who hasn't used much data this month is in Class 1.
If telecom is too political to think about this clearly, try these two metaphors: the water supply or an all-you-can-eat option at a restaurant.
You are the water district manager in charge of supplying water to a large community. During the summer, due to limited water and high demand, you don't have the supply to give everyone the water pressure they demand/expect. Imagine you could control water supply at this level of precision. One household has used a normal amount of water. A second is specifically on a high-volume plan and pays for every gallon. The third is on an "unlimited" plan. Household 2 and 3 have pools and large lawns and have used 10 times the water the first household has used. Again, seems perfectly reasonable to me that household three should be throttled to maintain the water pressure for households one and two. If household three doesn't like it, he can certainly switch to the pay-as-you-go high-volume plan. He he getting screwed because his water isn't "unlimited?" At no point is his water turned off, and if supply permits, he could fill his pool 30 times. But just like he wouldn't expect his "unlimited" plan to be able to supply a Las Vegas hotel (with 4000 rooms, fountains, pools, and golf courses), he shouldn't expect that unlimited means that he's the top-priority customer when bandwidth is allocated.
I'll leave the all-you-can-eat shrimp metaphor as an exercise for the reader.
Verizon haven't told you that majority of Deaf and HH are still on Grandfather Unlimited plans. Verizon doesn't want to reveal this to FCC and anyone else. Same for AT&T TAP Plan too. We were very concern about their using illegal throttle on our Grandfather plans.
You may not realize that Video calls consumed 2-3 MB per minute.
14 hours video calls = 1GB data
3GB = 42 hrs video calls monthly
6GB = 84 hrs video calls monthly
We all have to watch our data budget closely.
We rely on our Video calls thru Video Relay Service (VRS) and Point to Point calls.
We must stress that it is illegal for any wireless carriers to put throttle on our video calls due to the protection of life, health, safety or property. (911 calls) - FCC.
How would you feel that if they put throttle on your voice calls? How about VoLTE? Both Verizon and AT&T want to use VoLTE to be a bill as voice calls not the data usage at all. The problem is that both LTE and VoLTE are on same data line (internet based). That is net neutrality violation!
We all want to make sure that we must have video interoperability that need to have LTE and VoLTE to be integrate as interoperability.
You guys have all voice interoperability on every telephone and mobile devices, but we do not have video interoperability yet.
For this reason, we must have video interoperability so that we have choices to call either video call or voice call. Video interoperability is for everyone. We must tell FCC and wireless carriers that throttle is illegal to use on Video & Voice calls on LTE/VoLTE.
Bless to have iPhone in our hands!
Yes, sorry I was ambiguous, I mean an annual road trip plus several air trips. We probably have three of four vacations a year where we fly as well as the road trip. I think I just convinced myself we are better off with the unlimited data plan. Shame I can't use the tethering to an iPad or Mac with it though!