That thing where an ISP — like your wireless or cable company — can exempt certain services from counting against your data cap is called zero-rating, and it exists in a weird regulatory space. There are no rules against it, but there are also no rules explicitly permitting it. The businesses that do it, of course, say it is “innovative” and “competitive.” The FCC hasn’t openly decided whether or not it agrees. So a whole huge group of consumer advocates, business advocates, and businesses have gotten together to ask the FCC officially, and publicly, make up its mind. [More]
data caps
Netflix Introduces Data Usage Controls For Mobile Users
By 5.5.16
A month after admitting that it was deliberately broadcasting lower-resolution video to AT&T and Verizon wireless users, Netflix has introduced a new tool that will let users around the world choose how much of their data plan they want to blow through binge-watching House of Cards.
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Comcast Raising Data Caps To One Terabyte On June 1
By 4.27.16
Comcast has — deservedly so — been the subject of thousands of customer complaints since expanding its test of data caps in 2015. In an effort to establish a more realistic data cap, Comcast is more than tripling the monthly data threshold in these markets from 300 GB to a full terabyte. [More]
Sling TV: Data Caps Are Cable Industry Tool To “Sabotage” Streaming Video
By 4.22.16
Since Comcast began expanding its years-long “test” of data caps and overage fees, complaints to the FCC about these new limits have skyrocketed. And some streaming video companies say that data caps are causing customers to either limit their use or drop these services rather than risk paying a penalty for going over their monthly allotment. [More]
AT&T Copies Comcast, Lets U-Verse Customers Pay $30 To Avoid Data Caps
By 3.30.16
We don’t know why anyone would want to be like Comcast, but AT&T sure seems to be doing its best to dress itself up just like the chaps from Kabletown. They both hate community broadband and will lobby to shut it down when it competes with their services, and they both only offer competitive pricing when Google Fiber is in the mix. Now AT&T is following Comcast’s lead on data caps, by generously offering to let customers pay more to avoid running into those monthly limits. [More]
Netflix Admits To Throttling Its Own Streams On AT&T, Verizon Wireless Because Data Caps
By 3.25.16
If you have a network connection of a certain speed available on your phone, you expect receive data at roughly that speed, more or less. That’s how it works. Except that’s not how it’s been working for Netflix: the popular streaming video service was moving at a fraction of what users expected, on Verizon and AT&T networks. Consumers were all ready to line up and blame their mobile carriers, but the wireless companies weren’t the ones screwing around with anything, as it turns out. Netflix was. [More]
Study: Ads On The Mobile Web Don’t Just Suck, They Suck Up Valuable Data
By 3.17.16
You’ve got a limited allotment of monthly LTE data to use, so you’re careful with it. You just load up the news and read it — on a reputable website — while waiting for a coffee or the bus, let’s say. And yet at the end of the month you’ve used way more data than you feel like you should have. The culprit? Those annoying ads that get in your way anyway. [More]
Net Neutrality Is A Year Old Today. What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, And Where Does It Stand?
By 2.26.16
Happy birthday, net neutrality! A year ago today, after a long and contentious process, the FCC formally adopted the Open Internet Rule, reclassifying broadband internet as a Title II communications service and creating bright-line rules to protect consumers’ and businesses’ access to the internet. [More]
A Message From The Year 2026 About The Future Of Your TV
By 1.4.16
Thirty years ago, in 1996, you actually used your TV to watch broadcast or cable signals — live, as things aired. Twenty years ago, in 2006, you probably still had cable, but you probably also had a DVR, freeing you to watch programming at your leisure (much to the chagrin of advertisers). Ten years ago, in 2016, you may or may not have decided to cut the coaxial cord — but even if you had cable, odds were high you complemented it with some kind of streaming service. But by today, Jan. 4, 2026, if you even remember what “cable” was, that’s probably because you only see it at your grandparents’ house. [More]
If Comcast Is Going To Enforce Data Caps, It Has To Provide More Accurate Info To Customers
By 12.22.15
Another day, another story calling into question the validity of the data caps that Comcast has brought to a number of new markets in recent months. [More]
Comcast Customer’s Data Cap Meter Counts Gigabytes He Couldn’t Possibly Use
By 12.18.15
In just the few months since Comcast began expanding its cash-grab data cap program, which hits customers with overage charges for exceeding an arbitrary allotment of 300 gigabytes each month, thousands of customers have already complained to federal regulators. Some claim that the Comcast-supplied online “meter” intended to help keep track of users’ data simply doesn’t work. One customer, after being told that he was repeatedly going over the monthly limit, has shown just how broken Comcast’s system really is. [More]
More Than 13,000 Comcast Customers Have Complained To FCC About Data Caps
By 12.16.15
For the last few years, Comcast has been testing out data caps in a small number of markets, charging customers for exceeding their monthly allotment of 300GB (or offering them the chance to pay even more money for “Unlimited” access). More recently, the nation’s biggest cable company began expanding the number of data cap markets, and a new report shows that these new limitations have not gone over well with Comcast customers. [More]
Comcast CEO On Expanding Data Caps: “The More You Use, The More You Pay”
By 12.9.15
Comcast may be a provider of TV and internet services, but at its heart it’s in the exact same business as literally every business: making profit. Bringing in more money without spending more money is the tried-and-true way of making profit, so that’s exactly what Comcast wants to do. And their planned way of doing it involves charging consumers more for the internet they already use, and then adding some more on top of that, too. [More]
FCC Chair: Video Streaming That Doesn’t Count Against Your Data Caps Is “Innovative” And “Highly Competitive”
By 11.20.15
The FCC’s Open Internet Rule — net neutrality — has been in effect for months now, but that doesn’t mean every question about the ins and outs of who can do what with their network is settled. Far from it, in fact. Some questions, like zero rating, have been hanging out there unresolved all this time. Except now they’re a bit more resolved, and it seems to be totally okay for the time being. [More]
T-Mobile Unveils Free Video Streaming For Two Dozen Services, Doubles Data Plans
By 11.10.15
T-Mobile CEO John Legere today, at the company’s tenth “Uncarrier” announcement event, confirmed earlier reports that the big pink phone carrier will shortly stop charging streaming video against customers’ data plans. [More]
Comcast: Data Caps Will Save You Money, Except You Won’t Actually Pay Less
By 11.9.15
Now that Comcast isn’t trying to acquire anyone and doesn’t have to kiss regulatory/legislative derriere to make a merger happen, the company is expanding its push on using data caps and overage fees. Last week, leaked internal documents showed that these limits have nothing to do with network congestion, but that Comcast employees were to explain the caps as being in the name of “fairness.” Even though that sounds like a risible claim to anyone familiar with Comcast, the company is really sticking with it. [More]
Leaked Comcast Doc Admits: Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Congestion
By 11.6.15
For years, as Comcast and others have rolled out data caps on home broadband usage, we’ve shown evidence that these artificial limitations on data are all about squeezing money out of consumers, and have nothing to do with congestion. Now, with Comcast prepping to make its first large-scale push of its “data thresholds,” we’re seeing how the company is telling its employees to spin the discussion. [More]
Comcast’s Holiday Gift To Subscribers: Data Caps Coming To More Users December 1
By 11.4.15
Did you feel like paying more to Comcast next month to keep using the amount of data you’ve been using for years already? No? Well, if you’re in one of several markets in the southeast, tough cookies: Comcast’s data caps, and their fees, are coming to a cable modem near you this December. [More]
