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I don't see how throttling "unlimited" plans is a net neutrality problem It's one of the examples given during the FCC's bright-line guidance ( https://apps.fc

I don't see how throttling "unlimited" plans is a net neutrality problem It's one of the examples given during the FCC's bright-line guidance ( https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-332260A1.pdf https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-332260A1.p...): However, the network practice must be primarily used for and tailored to achieving a legitimate network management and not business purpose. For example, a provider can’t cite reasonable network management to justify reneging on its promise to supply a customer with “unlimited” data.

mikeash 11y ago
I still don't see how it's a net neutrality problem. Promising "unlimited" and then not providing it is a bad thing, certainly, but it's either false advertising or a failure to abide by the service contract, not a net neutrality violation.
- netneutralish 11y ago
  You'd be right if the carrier denied data access beyond a certain limit despite advertising "unlimited". But if the carrier chooses to throttle an "unlimited" data plan and thus degrades the delivery speed outside of "network management" contexts (such as congested network conditions) then they are now subject to additional punitive fines arising from net neutrality regulations that they are now subject to, on top of any (successful) fines related to misrepresentative advertising. This falls under the category of willfully "impairing, or degrading" an existing service motivated by business interests related to the specific subscriber, instead of driven by purely technical network management justifications which would apply to a wider geographic area (i.e. not subscriber-specific), and this is one of the bright-line examples given by the FCC when they issued their press release. As a side note, I believe the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection handles deceptive advertising enforcement, while the FCC handles net neutrality enforcement.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    I understand you're saying that the FCC considers it to be a net neutrality issue, and I'm not disputing that. I'm simply saying that I don't agree with that, and don't see why it would be considered a net neutrality issue. If you throttle all data to "unlimited" customers equally then that's still perfectly neutral. The government may disagree, but I have no reason to follow their definitions.

mikeash 11y ago

I still don't see how it's a net neutrality problem. Promising "unlimited" and then not providing it is a bad thing, certainly, but it's either false advertising or a failure to abide by the service contract, not a net neutrality violation.

netneutralish 11y ago
You'd be right if the carrier denied data access beyond a certain limit despite advertising "unlimited". But if the carrier chooses to throttle an "unlimited" data plan and thus degrades the delivery speed outside of "network management" contexts (such as congested network conditions) then they are now subject to additional punitive fines arising from net neutrality regulations that they are now subject to, on top of any (successful) fines related to misrepresentative advertising. This falls under the category of willfully "impairing, or degrading" an existing service motivated by business interests related to the specific subscriber, instead of driven by purely technical network management justifications which would apply to a wider geographic area (i.e. not subscriber-specific), and this is one of the bright-line examples given by the FCC when they issued their press release. As a side note, I believe the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection handles deceptive advertising enforcement, while the FCC handles net neutrality enforcement.
- mikeash 11y ago
  I understand you're saying that the FCC considers it to be a net neutrality issue, and I'm not disputing that. I'm simply saying that I don't agree with that, and don't see why it would be considered a net neutrality issue. If you throttle all data to "unlimited" customers equally then that's still perfectly neutral. The government may disagree, but I have no reason to follow their definitions.