Predictably, and perhaps appropriately, broadband carriers
are spending sleepless afternoons crafting new ways to diversify service
without violating the FCC’s Open Internet Order restrictions on traffic
blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.
So one person’s tiering may be another’s throttling and the FCC places itself in the middle as an awkward judge, jury executioner.
TMobile has opted to give with one hand and somewhat
furtively take with the other. The
carrier will offer “unlimited” data, subject to quality of service limitations,
including delivery of video at 480 p regardless of what format it received from
an upstream content provider or distributor. See, e.g., http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/t-mobile-unlimited-data-plan-video-caps-1201840422/. TMobile will retain a higher screen
resolution provided a subscriber pays a $25 upcharge.
Is TMobile throttling service by deliberately downgrading
quality, or is the carrier simply using screen resolution as a tiering option
and proxy for bit transmission speed?
Bear in mind that many wireless carriers have offered “unlimited”
data, subject to throttling to 2G or 3G speeds after a subscriber exceeds a
stated allowance. Perhaps a carrier does
not throttle if it does so on a nondiscriminatory basis. The carrier does not single out traffic from
a specific content provider or carrier.
Every content source faces service degradation if the subscriber exceeds
a still enforceable cap.
So one person’s tiering may be another’s throttling and the FCC places itself in the middle as an awkward judge, jury executioner.
No comments:
Post a Comment