FTC Sues AT&T for Shaping Unlimited Subscribers

Do you remember this move by AT&T, back in 2011 -  "AT&T to Throttle Top 5% of Unlimited Subscribers" - here?

Here comes the consumer response.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that  it has "..filed a federal court complaint against AT&T Mobility, LLC, charging that the company has misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds, in some cases by nearly 90 percent.

The FTC’s complaint alleges that the company failed to adequately disclose to its customers on unlimited data plans that, if they reach a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T reduces – or “throttles” – their data speeds to the point that many common mobile phone applications – like web browsing, GPS navigation and watching streaming video – become difficult or nearly impossible to use.

..The FTC alleges that AT&T, despite its unequivocal promises of unlimited data, began throttling data speeds in 2011 for its unlimited data plan customers after they used as little as 2 gigabytes of data in a billing period. According to the complaint, the throttling program has been severe, often resulting in speed reductions of 80 to 90 percent for affected users. Thus far, according to the FTC, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times".

Related post - "AT&T: 1M Subscribers Switched from Unlimited to UBB in Q1" - here.

See "FTC Says AT&T Has Misled Millions of Consumers with ‘Unlimited’ Data Promises" - here.

FCC: The New Net Neutrality is "Hybrid"

 
After years of failing to established a consumer oriented Net Neutrality, the FCC has a new scheme, recognizing that an Internet connection has two, non-equal, sides - the consumer and the content provider.

Edward Wtatt reports to the New York Times that "The proposal is part of a hybrid solution that has gained favor among theF.C.C. staff over the last two months. Like other possible solutions, it seeks to reestablish the F.C.C.’s authority to enforce net neutrality, the general concept that no Internet traffic should be discriminated against unfairly.

But unlike policies previously considered, which treated the entire Internet ecosystem as a single universe, the hybrid proposal would establish a divide between “wholesale” and “retail” transactions.

• The retail portion, the transaction that sends data through the Internet service provider to the consumer and which allows the consumer to access any legal content on the Internet, would receive a lighter regulatory touch.
   
• .. the hybrid approach would apply Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 to the connection between Internet service providers, or I.S.P.s, and content providers. For the purpose of agreeing to transport content from a company like Netflix through its network, an I.S.P. would be treated as a “common carrier,” subject to stricter regulation.In that instance, an I.S.P., as a common carrier, could not give an unfair advantage to one content provider over another. Paid prioritization , where a content provider pays for a fast lane to consumers, would be restricted unless it could be proved to be just and reasonable"

See "F.C.C. Considering Hybrid Regulatory Approach to Net Neutrality" - here.