7 ms·

>Exempting services from data caps is not against net neutrality, Excluding some services from bandwidth cap is perhaps slightly less extreme than throttling s

>Exempting services from data caps is not against net neutrality, Excluding some services from bandwidth cap is perhaps slightly less extreme than throttling specific services, which is itself less extreme than blocking those services outright. All are violations of net neutrality. The job of the ISP is to provide network connectivity, not decide how I use it.

tzs 3y ago
> The job of the ISP is to provide network connectivity, not decide how I use it. They do that. If your plan has, say, a 1 TB cap with no services that are exempt from the data cap you can pick any 1 TB from any mix of services you want without hitting your cap. If your plan has 1 TB cap but say Netflix is exempt from the cap you can still pick the exact same 1 TB from the exact same mix of services without hitting your cap.
- 15457345234 3y ago
  A 1TB cap really hides the issue. Let's reflect on the impact with a more restrictive cap, say, 10GB. If my ISP gives me 10GB from any service that isn't big_video_streamer but unlimited data from big_video_streamer it's immediately obvious that while they're not 'deciding' how I use their connectivity they're definitely 'coercing' me into going with big_video_streamer if I want to stream videos, which isn't their job as - ideally - a neutral conduit for traffic.
- thfuran 3y ago
  >but say Netflix is exempt from the cap That's obviously and blatantly them putting their thumb on the scale. It'd be like if Burger King were to pay car manufacturers to make it so that the second half of the gas tank only works for driving to Burger King drive-throughs. That's not how cars should work and ISPs shouldn't pull the same kind of shit.
  - tzs 3y ago
    A closer analogy would be that its like if you go through a Burger King drive-through they also give you gas to bring your tank back up to what it was when you started on your trip to Burger King. You said that "The job of the ISP is to provide network connectivity, not decide how I use it". My point is that if you have paid for a fixed amount of data per month, and you are going to use under that amount when you decide entirely on your own how to use it, then whether or not the ISP also gives you some free data with usage restrictions doesn't change that. If your ISP does not have any exemptions and then adds some and you miss the announcement you would never even notice, except maybe if you track your usage throughout the month to make sure you aren't going to go over and you notice they are reporting lower usage than you expect. Yes, it is putting a thumb on the scale, but I don't see how this is really different than any of the other ways companies often give free access to third party products to try to make the company more attractive to customers. That may be anticompetitive, but if so it should be dealt with under antitrust. Network neutrality should just cover things that restrict what you can do with the network.
    - thfuran 3y ago
      >and you are going to use under that amount when you decide entirely on your own how to use it ...but with inducement to use a particular service. >Network neutrality should just cover things that restrict what you can do with the network. But that's what this is. It's restricting every kind of traffic except Netflix. All other traffic is limited to a monthly quota.

tzs 3y ago

> The job of the ISP is to provide network connectivity, not decide how I use it. They do that. If your plan has, say, a 1 TB cap with no services that are exempt from the data cap you can pick any 1 TB from any mix of services you want without hitting your cap. If your plan has 1 TB cap but say Netflix is exempt from the cap you can still pick the exact same 1 TB from the exact same mix of services without hitting your cap.

15457345234 3y ago
A 1TB cap really hides the issue. Let's reflect on the impact with a more restrictive cap, say, 10GB. If my ISP gives me 10GB from any service that isn't big_video_streamer but unlimited data from big_video_streamer it's immediately obvious that while they're not 'deciding' how I use their connectivity they're definitely 'coercing' me into going with big_video_streamer if I want to stream videos, which isn't their job as - ideally - a neutral conduit for traffic.
thfuran 3y ago
>but say Netflix is exempt from the cap That's obviously and blatantly them putting their thumb on the scale. It'd be like if Burger King were to pay car manufacturers to make it so that the second half of the gas tank only works for driving to Burger King drive-throughs. That's not how cars should work and ISPs shouldn't pull the same kind of shit.
- tzs 3y ago
  A closer analogy would be that its like if you go through a Burger King drive-through they also give you gas to bring your tank back up to what it was when you started on your trip to Burger King. You said that "The job of the ISP is to provide network connectivity, not decide how I use it". My point is that if you have paid for a fixed amount of data per month, and you are going to use under that amount when you decide entirely on your own how to use it, then whether or not the ISP also gives you some free data with usage restrictions doesn't change that. If your ISP does not have any exemptions and then adds some and you miss the announcement you would never even notice, except maybe if you track your usage throughout the month to make sure you aren't going to go over and you notice they are reporting lower usage than you expect. Yes, it is putting a thumb on the scale, but I don't see how this is really different than any of the other ways companies often give free access to third party products to try to make the company more attractive to customers. That may be anticompetitive, but if so it should be dealt with under antitrust. Network neutrality should just cover things that restrict what you can do with the network.
  - thfuran 3y ago
    >and you are going to use under that amount when you decide entirely on your own how to use it ...but with inducement to use a particular service. >Network neutrality should just cover things that restrict what you can do with the network. But that's what this is. It's restricting every kind of traffic except Netflix. All other traffic is limited to a monthly quota.