{"id":7928,"date":"2013-01-15T18:26:51","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T18:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/uncategorized\/att-exempts-itself-from-its-data-cap-violates-at-least-the-spirit-of-net-neutrality\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T20:48:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T20:48:25","slug":"att-exempts-itself-from-its-data-cap-violates-at-least-the-spirit-of-net-neutrality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/att-exempts-itself-from-its-data-cap-violates-at-least-the-spirit-of-net-neutrality\/","title":{"rendered":"AT&T Exempts Itself From Its Data Cap, Violates (at least) the Spirit of Net Neutrality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Comcast started exempting its own online video service<\/a> from the data cap it imposed on consumers. When consumers streamed online video (say, because they were thinking about cutting the cord and replacing their Comcast cable subscription with an online competitor), that video counted against their cap.\u00a0 Unless, of course, that online video came from Comcast.\u00a0 Online video coming from Comcast was exempted from Comcast\u2019s own data cap, giving consumers a disincentive to watch video from a competitor.\u00a0 We urged the FCC to investigate<\/a> this anticompetitive use of data caps, and are still waiting for a resolution.<\/p>\n

Today, while we continue to wait for the FCC to investigate data cap abuse, AT&T has decided to follow suit<\/a> and exempt data from its own services from the data cap it imposes on its DSL and U-verse customers.\u00a0 Unlike every other type of data on those connections, data from an AT&T wireless phone does not count against the DSL\/U-verse cap.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Details<\/strong><\/p>\n

Microcells (also known as femtocells<\/a>) act like little cell phone towers in your home.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t get a signal from your cell phone provider, you can buy a little box that connects to your home internet connection.\u00a0 Your cell phone connects to the box, which connects to the internet, which connects to your carrier\u2019s network, allowing you to make calls, send texts, and transmit data even when you can\u2019t connect to a \u201creal\u201d cell phone tower.<\/p>\n

AT&T has decided that the data from AT&T wireless microcells will not count against the data caps on AT&T DSL or U-verse home broadband connections.*\u00a0 This sets AT&T microcell data apart from every other type of data on those connections, including data from a Verizon or Sprint microcell.\u00a0 The message to AT&T DSL and U-verse consumers is clear: if your cell signal is weak and you are worried about your data cap, better get a phone from AT&T wireless.\u00a0 Simply put, this is an abuse of data caps.<\/p>\n

The Impact<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have raised a number of concerns about data caps over the years (in fact, we wrote a whole whitepaper<\/a> about them).\u00a0\u00a0 Some of those concerns are easier to understand or more controversial than others<\/a>.\u00a0 However, there is one easy-to-understand concern about data caps that everyone should be able to agree on: ISPs should not be able to use data caps anticompetitively<\/strong>.\u00a0 The company that connects you to the internet should not be able to abuse its control of that connection in order to make its unrelated services more attractive.<\/p>\n

That is precisely what Comcast did in the Xbox case and what AT&T is doing here.\u00a0 It is also one of the core concerns driving the net neutrality debate.\u00a0 If the FCC is unwilling or unable to protect consumers from data cap abuse, then Congress needs to step in.<\/p>\n

* Yes, AT&T Wireless does count data flowing from your phone to the Microcell to your own home internet connection against your wireless data cap.\u00a0 This means that data that never touches AT&T’s wireless network still counts against your wireless data cap, regardless of your ISP.\u00a0 While it is not direclty connected to the issue in this post, it is hard to think of a legitimate justificaiton for this type of accounting.<\/em><\/p>\n

h\/t to StopTheCap.com reader James for catching this, and for StopTheCap.com for reporting it<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, Comcast started exempting its own online video service<\/a> from the data cap it imposed on consumers. When consumers streamed online video (say, because they were thinking about cutting the cord and replacing their Comcast cable subscription with an online competitor), that video counted against their cap.  Unless, of course, that online video came from Comcast.  Online video coming from Comcast was exempted from Comcast\u2019s own data cap, giving consumers a disincentive to watch video from a competitor.  We urged the FCC to investigate<\/a> this anticompetitive use of data caps, and are still waiting for a resolution.<\/p>\n

Today, while we continue to wait for the FCC to investigate data cap abuse, AT&T has decided to follow suit<\/a> and exempt data from its own services from the data cap it imposes on its DSL and U-verse customers.  Unlike every other type of data on those connections, data from an AT&T wireless phone does not count against the DSL\/U-verse cap. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-7928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","tag-net-neutrality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAT&T Exempts Itself From Its Data Cap, Violates (at least) the Spirit of Net Neutrality - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. 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