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ISPs Push For Two-Tier Internet Based on Data Caps

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Wednesday January 15, 2014


In response, net neutrality rules surfaced that were designed to safeguard online competition. Countries such as Chile and the Netherlands included net neutrality requirements within their telecom laws, while others developed regulatory guidelines and principles. In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission established the Internet traffic management practices in 2009, which serve as the Canadian net neutrality rules.

Concerns over net neutrality may have receded once policies were established, yet Internet providers continued to search for business models that could generate incremental revenues from their networks. Having failed to establish a two-tier Internet based on speed, they now appear to be focused on an alternative two-tier approach based on data usage.

The premise of a two-tier Internet based on data usage stems from the proliferation of data caps among many providers, particularly for fast-growing wireless Internet services.  The days of "unlimited Internet" are over at many providers, replaced by packages that include a fixed amount of data usage each month with expensive overage charges for those that exceed their monthly allocation.

Sensing consumer frustration with data caps, network providers have begun to offer access to some services or content that does not count against the monthly cap. The result is a new two-tier Internet: one Internet that counts against the monthly data cap and another that does not.

For example, last week AT&T, one of the largest U.S. Internet wireless providers, unveiled plans to offer "Sponsored Data", which will allow websites and content owners to essentially pay for users to access their content. Subscribers will access sponsored data in the same manner as other content through AT&T's wireless Internet service, but it will not count against the user's monthly cap.

AT&T argues that the plan does not run afoul of U.S. net neutrality rules since all content is delivered at the same speed (those rules were called into question in a legal decision yesterday). Yet the change creates a two-tier Internet with obvious advantages for deep-pocketed content providers who can promote their services as "data-free", while potentially superior start-up services become perceived as costlier alternatives.

Canadian providers have also begun to examine how data caps can be used to differentiate between content. For example, Bell offers a $5 per month mobile TV service that allows users to watch dozens of Bell-owned or licensed television channels for ten hours without affecting their data cap. By comparison, users accessing the same online video through a third-party service such as Netflix would be on the hook for a far more expensive data plan since all of the data usage would count against their monthly cap.

The Bell plan is currently the subject of a complaint before the CRTC, which maintains that Bell's practices violate the Commission's net neutrality rules by treating similar content in an unequal manner. The complaint will be addressed in the coming months, but regardless of the outcome, it is increasingly clear that there is a new front in the net neutrality fight with Internet providers intent on leveraging data usage to create a two-tier Internet.
Comments (4)add comment

pat donovan said:

3 way
work poltics and gaming... hard to tell the dif here now.

personally, if i didn't ask for it, it's spam.
I use script and graphic blockers; they'll have to pay me to watch the rest. (I turn vids with commercials off; i don't even like them because text is so much faster.)

a crushing monolith, with sanitized, sterilized and super items sounds scarey.

they won't transmit it if they don't own it, right? Cable should pay them to do this.

book burning (libs, net neuts,
seed burning ( gmo attacks)
money burning ( seen the buck recently?)

the days ARE getting longer. not a christmas enlightenment I wanted to see, thou.


January 15, 2014

Mobile Couch Potato said:

Wireless TV
Forcing TV services to be charged like data services doesn't really make sense. Undue preference aside, live TV programs come in hours.

Live TV over the cellular network is likely to become a larger issue in the next few years as technology and frequency bands for it improve. Pretending that mobile TV is "Internet" won't help anyone make good decisions about what shape it should have.
January 17, 2014

Gregg said:

Between the Decision in the US and the 700MHz Boondoggle....
We're going to be technologically blown back to 1980 unless one has the wallet of Kevin O'Leary, if the big ISP's and telco's have any say about it.
January 17, 2014

end user said:

Simple solution, if you run a network and offer internet access you can't be a media company or offer media services. What's next, power companies offering power line internet service then they get into media/tv/ services. All of a sudden there's data and energy caps because only a few users require unlimited internet and power supply, most users are happy with having their electricity shut off at 8pm.
January 17, 2014

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