Comcast Customers Will Begin Having Their Mobile Data Throttled
“We still don’t and won’t block, throttle or discriminate against lawful content. We’re still not creating fast lanes. We still don’t have plans to enter into so-called paid prioritization agreements.””
— Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson, June 2018, via PhillyMag
Less than one month after Comcast and other internet service providers proclaimed that they would not throttle customers' internet after net neutrality is dismantled, Comcast is.....wait for it....throttling customer's mobile internet usage. Again.
Comcast said, "the company will begin throttling all video streams to 480p resolution, which will become the default resolution for streaming video through cellular data." Customers streaming via WiFi, however, will not be affected.
Comcast will roll out a package that will allow customers to pay for 720p resolution. Comcast's Xfinity Mobile customers using the Unlimited Data Plan can also look forward to being capped at 600kbps. Comcast, a huge proponent of dismantling net neutrality laws because he believed them to be "too restrictive" took less than one month to renege on his self-proclaimed "commitment to net neutrality."
So, how will Comcast rope customers into paying for 720p? They're going to allow current customers to continue to stream at 720p at no additional cost, then announce the price change and charge customers to continue to stream at the higher quality 720p.
Charter Communications also launched a mobile broadband service and will throttle videos to 480p while offering customers to a package for 720p. Ars Technica shows that both Comcast and Charter Communication have similar mobile broadband services and pricing. Both companies' unlimited plans are $45, capping data at 600kbps. For their limited plans, Comcast charges $12 for each gigabyte of usage while Charter charges $14 for each gigabyte.
CalMatters' Antoinette Siu reported that The State of California is looking to take on the FCC by reinstating a state net neutrality bill that was gutted in June but has since been renegotiated. Senator Scott Wiener of San Fransisco said, "We know that the federal government is not going to fix things in the foreseeable future.” Hopefully, more states will follow California's example and draft bills to instate net neutrality laws so that ISPs won't be able to take advantage of consumers.
Perhaps more people would have fought to preserve net neutrality if they knew just what net neutrality was and how losing it could affect their daily lives. At present, this will only affect mobile data users on Comcast's Xfinity and Charter Communications Mobile. But it's only a matter of time before a package for home services is impacted.
Are you surprised that ISPs are beginning to go back on their word? Let us know in the comments.
