AT&T will throttle heaviest unlimited smartphone data users starting Oct. 1
July 29, 2011 — 4:53pm ET | By Phil Goldstein
“ … AT&T Mobility confirmed that starting Oct. 1 it may throttle the data speeds of smartphone users with unlimited data plans … AT&T did not indicate what amount of data usage would qualify users to be in the top 5 percent of heaviest users, but noted that as demand for mobile data increases, the top 5 percent threshold will change from month to month. … “
www.fiercewireless.com/story/att-will-throttle-unlimited-smartphone-data-users-starting-oct-1/2011-07-29

AT&T Wireless to Begin Throttling in October
As Company Ramps Up LTE Deployment
by Karl Bode Friday 29-Jul-2011
www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Wireless-to-Begin-Throttling-in-October-115427

AT&T to Throttle High Data Use, Preps for IPhone 5
By Mobiledia Staff | Forbes – Fri, Jul 29, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/t-throttle-high-data-preps-iphone-5-190514395.html

AT&T to Kill Granfathered Unlimited If You Tether Unofficially
Targets Users Who Are Dodging AT&T’s $20 Fee, Low Caps
by Karl Bode 55 minutes ago
www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-to-Kill-Granfathered-Unlimited-If-You-Tether-Unofficially-115528

AT&T Will Throttle Data Hogs as Unlimited Plans Wane
Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com – Mon Aug 1, 2:18 pm ET
” … Starting Oct. 1, AT&T smartphone customers with unlimited plans — the wireless carrier describes these customers as those whose extraordinary level of data usage puts them in the top five percent of heaviest users in a billing period – may experience throttling, or reduced connection speeds. … "The bottom line is our customers have options. They can choose to stay on their unlimited plans and use unlimited amounts of data, but may experience reduced speeds at some point if they are an extraordinarily heavy data user," AT&T said in its letter. "If speed is more important, they may wish to switch to a tiered usage plan, where customers can pay for more data if they need it and will not see reduced speeds." … “
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20110801/tc_nf/79594

Tethering, Verizon, and the Problem with Public Interest Requirements
Wed, July 27, 2011 | Posted by christopher
“ … When Verizon won an auction to use the 700MHz band of the spectrum to deliver mobile broadband, it promised to adhere to a set of openness rules that included allowing customers to use applications and devices of their choosing. But Verizon is now blocking "tethering" apps that allow us to use our cell phones as a modem for our computers. … This matter of tethering is incredibly important for the future of mobile access to the Internet … The good news is that the FCC has told Verizon is must respond to Free Press’ complaint. The bad news is that we have no idea how long it will take to resolve this and whether the FCC, which has maintained a cozy relationship with the big carriers through Republican and Democratic Administrations, will actually protect the public. … “
www.muninetworks.org/content/tethering-verizon-and-problem-public-interest-requirements

Bandwidth caps are rate hikes
Thursday, July 28th, 2011 at 7:07 am
” … Internet Service Providers … are trying to apply bandwidth caps to their users … Most of the press coverage of this issue comes down on the side of consumers but lately the ISP publicity machine has been revved-up and we’re being told that bandwidth caps are necessary, even inevitable. This is, as my 87 year-old Mom would say, BS. … If the ISPs can’t make money, we’re told, then we’ll all lose our Internet service. They’ve become “too big to fail. ” Remember that one? Fortunately, at the same time bandwidth consumption is going up, backbone costs are going down and have been doing so for many years. The basic unit of ISP backbone expenditures is called IP Transit. … No matter what your ISP says, their backbone costs are inconsequential and to argue otherwise is probably a lie. … These data caps are actually a trap being set for us by the ISPs. Data caps that may [but don’t] make logical sense today [still] make no sense tomorrow, yet once they are in place they’ll tend to stay in place. IP Transit costs will continue to drop. That $8 price will most likely continue to fall at the historical annual rate of 22 percent. So what’s presented as an ISP insurance policy is really a guaranteed profit increase of 22 percent that will be compounded over time because consumption will continue to rise and customers will be for the first time charged for that increased consumption. This isn’t about capping ISP losses, but are about increasing ISP profits. The caps are a built-in revenue bump that will kick-in 2-3 years from now, circumventing any existing regulatory structure for setting rates. The regulators just haven’t realized it yet. By the time they do it may be too late. … In time we will all bump into these caps and our Internet bills will suddenly double as a result, circumventing competition and ending a 15 year downward broadband price trend. ISPs win, we lose. … "
www.cringely.com/2011/07/bandwidth-caps-are-rate-hikes/

Just Say No to Data Caps
Lance Ulanoff – PC Magazine – Wed Jul 13, 9:34 am ET
” … Bandwidth caps will come and riding along side them will be our new digital reality: Watching the meter. … Andre Vrignaud is not exactly your average or typical home broadband customer, but he’s not as different as you might think. He takes photos, listens to Pandora music, watches videos, shares his access with guests when they arrive, and uses cloud-based services. In the case of his photos and cloud use, Vrignaud uploads some hefty files, and he and his roommates managed to use up more than 250GB in one month. Comcast, his service provider, has a 250GB cap. Vrignaud was given a warning, and he did what he could to decrease consumption. A month later, he was kicked off Comcast for 12 months, with absolutely no chance for appeal. Vrignaud didn’t know that Comcast counts all data usage – downloads and uploads. … Let’s try and leave aside the fact that, despite all the detailed policy info, Comcast’s hard-nosed actions make it seem almost evil. What are the implications? Vrignaud was not hosting a pirated content server. He wasn’t serving illicit data from his home. He was trying to live a digital life and by using cloud services, ensure that his precious data and photos weren’t lost. Everyday consumers are being encouraged to consume mass quantities of data via streaming and non-stop Web page and data consumption. The industry is pushing the cloud. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and, now, Apple are all delivering richer and richer cloud services that encourage us to store and access more and more from their cloud services. … I think ISP networks can handle the stress. What they’re really after is money. They know consumers will reject [outright] "metered" Internet access, but know consumers can understand threshholds. If you go over the threshold, the ISPs can start charging you for metered access. … It’s true, ISPs have the control. [unfortunately] Most are local monopolies: without them, some people do not have broadband access. More and more of these broadband providers will soon use this power to apply caps or meters that will radically change how we [and our children] access and store content and how we pay for that privilege. These actions could kill the cloud revolution before it gets started [and that’s the whole idea folks!]. … “
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20110713/tc_zd/266793

Apple’s iCloud vs. the Data Caps
By Sascha Segan_August 2, 2011 01:05pm EST
” … This must really annoy Apple, and it’s going to annoy Apple users. But Apple’s been down this road before, because there’s one big part of its iOS user experience the company can’t control: wireless carriers’ [artificial-scarcity] caps on monthly data usage. The restrictions on iCloud won’t be unique to Apple. As we see mobile cloud services become more popular with big names like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Google Music, those are also going to run right up against the wireless carriers’ new data caps. Right now, relatively few people exceed their caps, and mobile streaming services have existed for years. But the trend lines are heading in opposite, colliding directions. Caps are getting tighter just as a new generation of high-profile, big-name streaming services are taking off. On October 1, AT&T will start throttling heavy data users on its old, grandfathered unlimited plans to bring the user experience more in line with its new, [super-expensive] capped plans. Sprint’s Virgin Mobile [MVNO] brand also tossed away unlimited use; in October, it too will start throttling speeds for people who use more than 2.5GB per month. … Netflix has already knuckled under to home ISP data caps in Canada, reducing its default video quality on big-screen devices so Canadians don’t end up being charged hundreds of dollars by their ISPs. And the data caps have crept across the border as well; cable company Comcast imposes a 250GB cap. … Apple and other cloud providers direct mobile users to Wi-Fi. But here in the U.S., Wi-Fi won’t provide a solution. Internet service providers, by and large, successfully torpedoed the idea of municipal Wi-Fi, and their own pay Wi-Fi networks are spotty and unreliable. Wireless carriers cry poverty. They say they don’t have enough spectrum to provide the kinds of Internet services people want, and (in AT&T’s case) claim that only eliminating rivals to create gigantic mega-carriers could possibly create an infrastructure to support future traffic. … “
www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390275,00.asp

Entner: Price, data services are an increasingly important part of choosing wireless carrier
August 1, 2011 — 3:34pm ET | By Roger Entner
“ … The most important purchase decision factor is price, and it has become more important since the beginning of the recession. Mobile data services is the purchase decision factor that, other than price, has more than doubled in importance over the last three years. … “
www.fiercewireless.com/story/entner-price-data-services-are-increasingly-important-part-choosing-wireles/2011-08-01

Ready, set, sue! Net neutrality rules almost official
By Stacey Higginbotham Jun. 30, 2011, 10:12am PT
” … The Federal Communications Commission sent its net neutrality rules on their final steps to becoming a real law on Thursday. … The rules, based on a set of principles adopted in 2005, are an attempt to provide regulations that will keep ISPs from [again] discriminating against traffic on their networks, so a broadband provider couldn’t block content from Yahoo, for instance, or play favorites with certain web sites or services. The FCC had started this process in September 2009. Now, it could be as soon as 35 days before these rules hit the Federal Register or a bit longer, but for bureaucracy watchers (and those who care how the net neutrality fight plays out) this is a significant move. The FCC also offered up some details on Thursday on how ISPs will need to comply with the transparency requirements in the original order. In general, ISPs will have to offer consumers a web site that will disclose how the ISP manages traffic in cases of [so-called] network congestion … “
http://gigaom.com/broadband/ready-set-sue-net-neutrality-rules-almost-official/

‘Net Neutrality’ a Threat to Internet Freedom
Mark Whittington – Tue Aug 2, 8:47 pm ET
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110803/bs_ac/7456492_net_neutrality_a_threat_to_internet_freedom_1