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It's funny that in Australia the carriers realised that offering free data on facebook, twitter etc would increase the number of people that would move to the s

by bobbles 12y ago

It's funny that in Australia the carriers realised that offering free data on facebook, twitter etc would increase the number of people that would move to the service, and from my POV seemed like a good deal for all involved. The state of the US carrier system has messed itself up so badly that a carrier trying to offer something for FREE is now being attacked by the customers it's trying to serve. What a joke

dm8 12y ago
Because it's directly at loggerheads with net neutrality. And it's not free. Rhapsody may be paying for data costs. Imagine you are a small startup competing against Rhapsody. Customers will always go for Rhapsody since it doesn't count against data caps. And as a small startup you can't afford to pay required money to carrier and even if you can afford then it's at the mercy of your carrier. Why do you need gatekeepers?
mikeash 12y ago
We're tired of our cell carriers telling us how we can use their service. For example, it's common for carriers to charge extra for tethering. That is to say, they want more money to transmit bytes to and from your phone if your phone is forwarding for your laptop than if your phone is using that data itself. Even though their costs are identical and they actually have to go through contortions to catch people doing this using the more clever schemes for it, they still insist on charging more. We want dumb pipes that deliver data and care not for what kind of data it is. Any step away from that is bad. That's what this represents, and "free" doesn't make up for that. You talk about free data to Facebook as if it's a universally good thing. Imagine if someone is making the next great Facebook competitor. Now, instead of a level playing field, they'll have to contend with the fact that people get to access Facebook for "free" while they use up their data quota talking to the new service. Any time someone gives you something for "free", look around to see if you can spot the sucker. It might be you.
cstrat 12y ago
The people sharing concerns with what T-Mobile are doing aren't looking at it through a short sighted consumer lens. It's a great move for consumers right now who stream music. However it is encouraging a tighter coupling between content producers and service providers - which dismantles the neutrality of the Internet. In the long run, consumers are said to loose out because only the biggest businesses will be able to afford to maintain their tight coupling. Smaller players will lose out.

by bobbles 12y ago

dm8 12y ago

Because it's directly at loggerheads with net neutrality. And it's not free. Rhapsody may be paying for data costs. Imagine you are a small startup competing against Rhapsody. Customers will always go for Rhapsody since it doesn't count against data caps. And as a small startup you can't afford to pay required money to carrier and even if you can afford then it's at the mercy of your carrier. Why do you need gatekeepers?

mikeash 12y ago

We're tired of our cell carriers telling us how we can use their service. For example, it's common for carriers to charge extra for tethering. That is to say, they want more money to transmit bytes to and from your phone if your phone is forwarding for your laptop than if your phone is using that data itself. Even though their costs are identical and they actually have to go through contortions to catch people doing this using the more clever schemes for it, they still insist on charging more. We want dumb pipes that deliver data and care not for what kind of data it is. Any step away from that is bad. That's what this represents, and "free" doesn't make up for that. You talk about free data to Facebook as if it's a universally good thing. Imagine if someone is making the next great Facebook competitor. Now, instead of a level playing field, they'll have to contend with the fact that people get to access Facebook for "free" while they use up their data quota talking to the new service. Any time someone gives you something for "free", look around to see if you can spot the sucker. It might be you.

cstrat 12y ago

The people sharing concerns with what T-Mobile are doing aren't looking at it through a short sighted consumer lens. It's a great move for consumers right now who stream music. However it is encouraging a tighter coupling between content producers and service providers - which dismantles the neutrality of the Internet. In the long run, consumers are said to loose out because only the biggest businesses will be able to afford to maintain their tight coupling. Smaller players will lose out.