The big news this week is the FCC’s $100 million fine of
AT&T for “throttling” its customers, which the Washington Post did a good
job covering. Throttling is the practice of limiting subscribers’ download
speeds after they reach a certain data threshold. For AT&T subscribers who
paid for unlimited data, that meant streaming videos and other high bandwidth
content eventually started slowing down. While not exactly the same issue
targeted by the FCC’s net neutrality rule, which dictates that service
providers can’t slow down the streams of one content provider over another, the
FCC’s action on throttling has the same spirit to it: that everyone should be
able to access everything at the same speeds, without service providers getting
in the way. For its part, AT&T said the practice of throttling is
widespread in the industry, and that the FCC knows this. While it’s not a great
defense – everybody else is doing it, so why shouldn't we – it does raise the question of whether
more throttling fines will come. Read the WaPo article here.
