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Rules about advertising could just end up like it did in Portugal. ISPs were advertising unlimited data (on fiber/cable), but the small print stated that there
by nathanlied 11y ago
Rules about advertising could just end up like it did in Portugal. ISPs were advertising unlimited data (on fiber/cable), but the small print stated that there was a limit, which was dependent on congestion/etc.
Essentially, in any given month, you could get throttled/yelled at for going over an arbitrary data cap, which could (and did) vary every month. Given, it was usually above 1 TB, but it was still there.
ISPs got a book thrown at them by the FCC equivalent, saying that if they advertise their product as unlimited, it must be truly unlimited. Literally the next day that decision came out, all ISPs changed their adverts from unlimited to "at will" data caps, which essentially conveys the same marketing message, but isn't a regulated term.
Welcome to the new world, same as the old world, except where we've replaced a word.
- spacehome 11y agoYea, but that's a better world to live in, because people know what "unlimited" means and will glide right over it, thinking they get the speaker's intended message. I want people to see a new unfamiliar term like "at will" and think for 5 seconds about what the heck that actually means. AT&T would have avoided all the fines and public backlash if they had just made up some new term rather than underhandedly and intentionally misleading people.