5 ms·
As seriously troubling as the explicit approval of non-neutral wireless internet is, the good thing is that the ISPs' old standby line that "the market will pun
by mortenjorck 16y ago
As seriously troubling as the explicit approval of non-neutral wireless internet is, the good thing is that the ISPs' old standby line that "the market will punish a provider that unfairly discriminates" actually applies here. Unlike the ISP business, where, in many residential markets, there is no market, there are still several choices for mobile internet in most markets.
If my AT&T DSL suddenly starts throttling Netflix, I don't have a whole lot of options apart from moving. If my AT&T 3G starts throttling Netflix (let's imagine for a moment that Netflix is watchable over 3G), I have a few options: I can wait until my contract is over and switch then, I can pay an ETF and switch now, and chances are, there are two or three other viable competitors in my market once I'm off contract. And none of these can just silently start throttling either, per the transparency requirement.
Of course, the dangers are still there: The market could decide together to start throttling and dealing, some more carrier mergers could sweet-talk their way past the SEC, and a highly un-neutral net could become yet another stifling fact of life in the US wireless market.
- larrik 16y agoFor the record, I watch Netflix over AT&T 3G all the time, and it works very well for me.
- thebooktocome 16y agoIt was a hypothetical situation. "If [AT&T] suddenly starts throttling..."
- larrik 16y agoI guess I misunderstood the part that said "(let's imagine for a moment that Netflix is watchable over 3G)"...
- mortenjorck 16y agoYou understood correctly -- has Netflix since added a lower bitrate for 3G? The last time I tried to stream over AT&T it would buffer about five seconds for every one second of video.
- larrik 16y agoI've only really started using it recently, and I can watch an entire Doctor Who episode at full quality with only 4 bars of service (iPhone 4). At weaker signals the quality drops before it buffers (I'd honestly rather it buffered). Of course, I'm not in SF or NYC or anywhere else with notorious bad AT&T service.
- dinedal 16y agoOne could even argue that AT&T violated their end of the contract by throttling NetFlix (they no longer provide you with the same service they did the month before) and you should be able to get out ETF free (IANAL)
- gte910h 16y agoI hope to find this stands up in court.