FCC questions ISPs' selective memory about data caps
- Reference: 1687179731
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/06/19/fcc_data_cap_investigation/
- Source link:
As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pointed out, many American broadband ISPs – along with their international counterparts – either temporarily or permanently refrained from enforcing or imposing data limits on their customers' transfer capacity as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden imposition of stay-at-home mandates, as many readers have experienced, placed an unprecedented strain on consumer networks, previously used only for watching Netflix or gaming while enterprise-grade connections took a little COVID rest.
As the pandemic spread in March 2020, more than 800 US ISPs and telcos signed a " [1]pledge " that they wouldn't cut off consumer or small biz customers who paid their bill late, or charge overdue fees to those hit by economic hardship, as we [2]reported at the time.
[3]
At the same time, many of the global ISPs removed data allowances on consumer broadband including BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk and O2 in the UK. In the US, AT&T suspended all data caps for customers and [4]Comcast bumped up bandwidth for its low income "Essentials" package. Providers around the globe did similar. After all, the world and their dog were educating their children at home and using home connections to keep working – with only some employers offering to offset their home working costs and connections. ISPs wanted to show they supported telehealth and remote learning efforts during the pandemic, and weren't keen on the bad publicity that would be attracted by those cutting off access in an emergency.
[5]Starlink's rocket speeds hit a 50 megabit wall for large downloads
[6]It's back: America's net neutrality advocates begin push to return to pre-Trump internet protections
[7]House Republicans introduce legislation for outright ban on municipal broadband in the US
[8]Dems to ISPs: You're not gonna hike broadband prices, slap restrictions on folks in a pandemic, are you?
The FCC wants to know why it was that easy then but not now in an investigation into how data caps are affecting the sector.
"Internet access is no longer nice-to-have, but need-to-have for everyone, everywhere. As we emerge from the pandemic, there are many lessons to learn about what worked and what didn't work, especially around what it takes to keep us all connected," said FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel
[9]PDF
. "When we need access to the internet, we aren't thinking about how much data it takes to complete a task, we just know it needs to get done. It's time the FCC take a fresh look at how data caps impact consumers and competition."[10]
The commission said it was also looking into its own legal authority to take action on data caps.
If you're based in the US and have a specific situation that personally affected you that involved a consumer broadband cap, you can fill out a form [11]here , but don't forget to share the gory details with your fellow Reg readers in the comments below. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.fcc.gov/keep-americans-connected
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/12/us_broadband_pandemic/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZJB7muA9UKt1AOsBa9BB8gAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/internet-essentials-low-income-broadband-coronavirus-pandemic
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/07/brit_starlink_download_cap/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/02/net_neutrality_advocates/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/19/us_connect_act/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/12/us_broadband_pandemic/
[9] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-394416A1.pdf
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZJB7muA9UKt1AOsBa9BB8gAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/16136257875348-Data-Caps-Experience-Form
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Which century are we in? Data caps on residential connections?...
" ineffective regulation? a lack of actual competition in the marketplace? cartel behaviour from broadband providers? "
The answer is (d) all of the above
Re: Which century are we in? Data caps on residential connections?...
"but long-term"
The point about greed is that it extends to coveting the money even of hypothetical future people.
So how on earth is it that there are widespread data caps on broadband contracts in the USA?
A combination of many things. So cost, complexity, marketing, lobbying and tradition. Oh, and regulation, which is lobbying by other means.
But why would you accept data caps on mobile, yet not broadband? Especially when that's frequently sold as 'mobile broadband' and a wireline replacement? Techincally and commercially, that's really the same issue, ie managing capacity on a finite resource in a FRAND kind way, so Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discrimatory.
Spectrum is finite on both fixed and mobile, so can easily become congested, especially where you've got lots of subscribers. Services are marketed based on theoretical capacity, ie xMbps but with finite capacity on the backhaul, so can easily become congested. Then we end up with complaints about being sold 'Up to xMbps', but getting much less. Solving that problem means throwing capacity at the problem, but that increases costs. If costs increase, we lose the social benefits, unless those connections are subsidised to reflect that benefit.
The alternative is to manage capacity more effectively, ie using QoS/CoS to try and prioritise time sensitive traffic when congestion occurs. Congestion will almost always occur, because TCP/IP is just very bad at dealing with that because it assumes the clever stuff happens at the transmission/transport layers.. And it's made worse by software, ie relying on UDP, which is extremely dumb vs TCP, which is slightly less dumb. For business users, they can run VPNs that use a combiination of DiffServe and MPLS, for consumers, well, it's too bad.
Main challenge to managing resources efficiently is a combination of political and lobbying, so it's basically the heart of the 'Net Neutrality debate. Regulators could solve some of that by setting the rules, but there's a lot of lobbying to keep the Internet best-efforts.
Which century are we in? Data caps on residential connections?...
I can understand data caps on mobile data contracts, but data caps on (residential/domestic) broadband? I'm in the UK and the last time I had a data cap was about 15+ years ago on a low cost contract where the peak-hours daytime service was capped at about 150GB/month (no cap on overnight usage). Nowadays, I'm on an unlimited gigabit FTTP connection which has a list price of £29.99/month (and quite a bit less with various discounts/deals available). Even the low-cost social tariffs in the UK have unlimited usage. In fact, that's an important part of those contracts - fixed price, no surprises.
So how on earth is it that there are widespread data caps on broadband contracts in the USA? - ineffective regulation? a lack of actual competition in the marketplace? cartel behaviour from broadband providers? Without uniform access to low-cost high-speed connections, the economy will suffer. Yes, broadband providers might do well in the short-term, but long-term there will be lower revenues/profit.