FCC Boss Mocks Comcast Broadband Caps at Industry 'Prom' Last night was the telecom industry "prom," or the Federal Communications Bar Association chairman's dinner. It's a night when most of the heavy hitters in the telecom industry get together to dine and congenially joke about the issues of the day, despite the serious impact most of these problems have on end users. This year's dinner was no exception, with FCC boss Tom Wheeler firing a number of barbs at industry attendees like former FCC boss-turned-cable lobbyist Michael Powell.

Wheeler was quick to make fun of how the industry blames anything and everything on the FCC's decision to reclassify ISPs under Title II to enforce net neutrality. But the FCC boss also made a joke about Comcast's slowly expanding usage caps. More specifically, Comcast's historic refusal to even admit they have usage caps: quote: Wheeler had hardly gotten warmed up when he turned his attention to Comcast, which had a table at the dinner. Wheeler said the custom at the dinner was "to drink as much wine as you want." Then he asked: "Where's the Comcast table," then repeated himself and scanned the crowd. When the table had identified itself, the chairman went to work. "Waiters, pay attention. If they want more wine, it's 35 dollars a bottle. And don’t consider it a wine cap. Just think of it as a wine usage plan." That would be funnier if the FCC hadn't been sitting on its hands in regard to not only Comcast's expansion of usage caps, but its recent decision to let its not count against the usage allotment. Comcast has tried to argue that because a part of the service travels over Comcast's "managed network," the practice can't possibly violate net neutrality. It's an argument both sides will potentially be debating in court should the FCC's net neutrality rules hold up under the industry's current legal assault. That would be funnier if the FCC hadn't been sitting on its hands in regard to not only Comcast's expansion of usage caps, but its recent decision to let its own streaming service count against the usage allotment. Comcast has tried to argue that because a part of the service travels over Comcast's "managed network," the practice can't possibly violate net neutrality. It's an argument both sides will potentially be debating in court should the FCC's net neutrality rules hold up under the industry's current legal assault.







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Most recommended from 48 comments

shmerl

join:2013-10-21 22 recommendations shmerl Member Jokes aside What is FCC planning to do about data caps?

rottnpup

join:2000-08-04

Minneapolis, MN 18 recommendations rottnpup Member One step at a time. I think he is waiting for the Court decision on FCC being able to pass Net Neutrality. But he's letting Comcast know where he stands and A fight is coming if courts allow. Zetsuei

join:2015-08-10 11 recommendations Zetsuei Member A joke? This is sorta infuriating if you think about it. He knows how many people are upset about it and how much of a joke it is to impose such silly data caps and say its meant to save customers money when we all know its all about them milking us as hard as they can. And then we have him sitting here cracking jokes about it like its all fun times to make fun of the people getting screwed over by them. The FCC made some moves with net neutrality but ever since then they act like they're so damn afraid to do anything.

karlmarx

join:2006-09-18

Moscow, ID 10 recommendations karlmarx Member The problem with caps Look at it from a business perspective and a technical perspective.

Compare ISP's to your cell phone provider. 10 years ago, the average plan had x minutes and charges for long distance. Today, there are almost NO cell phone carriers that charge for minutes, and NONE of them charge for long distance. Ask yourself how that came into being. It happened for 2 reasons.

The #1 reason you don't have minutes on your cell phone plan is COMPETITION. PERIOD. The cost to provide a minute of cell phone calling is so small, even if you talked 12 hours a day, the stress you could put on the network is next to nothing. #2 : The technology has gotten so cheap, the only expense is the 'backbone', and once that is met, operating it is next to free.

What's happening with ISP's? The exact OPPOSITE. Why, because there IS NO COMPETITION. Like the cell phone carriers however, the COST is the backbone, NOT the operations. It costs comcast EXACTLY THE SAME to provide service to someone who uses 10GB a month as it does to provide service to uses 1000GB a month. EXACTLY THE SAME.

With LACK of competition, the ISP's are interesting in printing money by providing nothing, and CAPS are the fastest/cheapest/easiest way to do that.

CAPS ARE COMPANIES RAPING THE CUSTOMER. There is NO technical reason for there to ever be a cap, the cap is SPEED provided, not data used. Hell, even the cable companies FREELY ADMIT the caps have NOTHING to do with managing the network and EVERYTHING to do with RAISING RATES.

The problem with this whole scenario is the cable companies are using MONOPOLY POWER to rape the customer, like Ma Bell did when you paid through the nose for long distance calls. This has got to be stopped BEFORE it becomes the norm, as it's much harder to UNDO bad behavior than it is to nip it in the bud.

chip89

Premium Member

join:2012-07-05

Columbia Station, OH 10 recommendations chip89 Premium Member Burned! wkm001

join:2009-12-14 3 recommendations wkm001 Member I'm going to miss Tom Tom has truly been a public servant. He isn't aligning himself for a job after the FCC, which is less than a year away.



He could have told the T-Mobile table to have all they want but the wine is a little cheaper and their glasses are smaller. LOL