FCC Wants To Know How Wireless Carriers Manage Data
Last month, Verizon Wireless announced that starting October 1, it will begin throttling the speed of a specific group of 4G LTE customers still on the ancient unlimited data plans. More specifically, the company is targeting the top 5 percent of its "Unlimited" customers who are using more than 4.7 GB of data in a single billing period. However, the company pointed out that the throttling will only kick in if the customer is on a congested tower.
Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wasn't happy about the news (pdf), reporting that he was "deeply troubled" by Verizon's so-called "Network Optimization" policy.
"'Reasonable network management' concerns the technical management of your network; it is not a loophole designed to enhance your revenue streams. It is disturbing to me that Verizon Wireless would base its 'network management' on distinctions among its customers' data plans, rather than on network architecture or technology," he told Verizon.
Verizon's Senior Vice President of Federal Regulatory Affairs, Kathleen Grillo, responded to Wheeler's letter, reporting that Verizon turns off the throttling when the congestion on the tower clears up. Essentially, the company doesn't want the top 5 percent "data hogs" to leave all other customers suffering from slow connections. That simply wouldn't be fair.
Last week, Public Knowledge reported that it sent formal complaints to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless regarding the data throttling practices. The letters explained that AT&T, Sprint and Verizon violate the transparency rule because they don't openly disclose where the congestion resides when it happens. T-Mobile violates the transparency rule because it doesn't provide throttled customers with information about their actual network speed.
"In order to comply with the FCC's transparency requirement, Sprint and Verizon must publish monthly data-based thresholds (as opposed to merely percentage-based thresholds) for throttling eligibility. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon must publish real-time information about parts of their network that are congested enough to trigger throttling," the organization said.
Public Knowledge added that this information must be provided in an open environment and in accessible formats.
Now the FCC wants answers from all four North American carriers. On Friday after the monthly FCC public meeting, Wheeler told journalists that the FCC has written to all carriers, not just Verizon. Wheeler is concerned that wireless carriers are moving away from "a technology and engineering issue to the business issues ... such as choosing between different subscribers based on your economic relationship with them."
The FCC has requested answers to questions that are similar to the ones received by Verizon weeks ago. In Verizon's case, Wheeler wants to know why the throttling technique has been extended from its 3G service to the "more efficient" 4G LTE network. He even asks why Verizon treats customers differently who are based on different data plans. Another question covers Verizon's obligations under the 700 MHz C Block open platform rules.
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Hah, you should try my country. Typical carrier data plans cap bandwidth over 500mb a month or 10mb a day, whichever comes first. 50GB is the monthly cap for DSL connections on many providers. I got a 5000 USD (yes, 5 grand) bill from my provider regarding 32GB of monthly 3G usage.
This is outrageous and should be taken very seriously. Why do these companies always need more money when they all have so much of it?
Verizon is applying the throttling to users on the unlimited plans at traffic levels that is less than some users who are on a limited plan where they pay for a fixed amount of data.
Also the fact that they are throttling instead of upgrading also goes to show what they think about their customers.
The FCC is usually pretty strict on what they enforce being a government affiliated set of standards. Although the USA government is corrupt (as is mostly every other government gone wild like us) standards are standards. They can't really be bent around like a loophole in a law could. They spend a lot of time organizing and setting these up. He only initiated this and now probably a group of people are going to look over the data. I feel a successful hit on the phone providers incoming.
There's a reason Wheeler is where he is and it's not to protect consumers. The "deeply concerned" stance of his is all a muse. The wireless companies and cable companies will always come out on the winning end of things as long as Wheeler holds his current position. An example of his deep concern is how cable companies are eroding net neutrality. Before Wheeler, we didn't have this.
Also, for you cable subscribers, get ready for a price hike with regard to cable packages containing local networks. No longer will they be part of a 'basic' package. Legislation is currently under review to raise the cost of getting local channels through cable. Check out keepmytv.org.
So we have the erosion of net neutrality and the current threat of price increases just to receive what would be free channels over the air through cable all on Wheeler's watch. He hasn't even held his position that long; not even a year (appointed Nov 4, 2013). He was head of the NCTA and CTIA serving as president and CEO for both organizations.
And for you cord cutters, the next step will be to eliminate public broadcasts of the major networks.
I would be extremely surprised to see any result favoring consumers with regard to Wheeler's deep concern.
They word their response to defend the non-unlimited users, to deflect their responsibility. They refer to the top 5% unlimited users as data-hogs, but the reality is that they are using the service that they paid for, and were promised, and signed a contract to have. In this situation the appropriate response for Verizon is to identify the points in their network where there is congestion, and if they need to throttle those points so that all users have a better experience then they should down throttle everyone regardless of plan equally OR add/upgrade the infrastructure at those points to provide better service.
The moral of this story is don't sell what you can not support, and don't treat one paying customer differently than another paying customer.