AT&T spent the better Part of Last year Pretending to shake its fist along with the Majority of Americans in Support of Net Neutrality Rules being kept. This Protesting included CEO Randall Stephenson doing some Damage Control by slyly asking the Republican Congress to create an “Internet Bill of Rights” that would allow his Company to get around the Predictable Rise in State Laws that try to Protect their Citizens from Predatory Telecoms, now that Telecoms have gotten their way. "We don't block websites. We don't censor online content. And we don't throttle, discriminate, or degrade network performance based on content. Period," Stephenson wrote.
But as of today, AT&T started to send out some Texts to their Customers explaining how they are “Expanding” their Sponsored Data Program to Allow other Companies to Sponsor”Data. What’s important about this is that their Sponsored” Data Plan means that Companies will Pay AT&T in order to have their Content Streamed on AT&T Customers’ Devices without Hitting against their Data Plans.
This is the Promotion of Internet “Fast Lanes” by almost any Definition.
As of right now, the only Three Services using AT&T’s Sponsored Data Program are DirecTV, UVerse, and Fullscreen.
By a huge Coincidence, those are Three Video Services Owned by AT&T. “Now your plan includes sponsored data. This means, for example, that customers who have DirecTV or U-verse TV can now stream movies and shows … without it counting against their plan data,” AT&T told Customers in a Text Message earlier today.
This flies directly in the face of a Statement AT&T made just last year, when it was trying to Persuade Consumers that the FCC’s Net Neutrality Repeal wouldn’t be the End of a Free and Open Internet.
“AT&T intends to operate its network the same way AT&T operates its network today: in an open and transparent manner. We will not block websites, we will not throttle or degrade internet traffic based on content, and we will not unfairly discriminate in our treatment of internet traffic,” Executive Bob Quinn said at the time.
The next step will be Telecoms taking Away and Throttling your Data until the point where you can only Afford to Stream the Data that AT&T gets Paid to Allow you to Watch.
By not Counting Data used from One of their Services, they’re Incentivizing Customers to use their Services over a Competitor. It’s a gray area, like Microsoft packaging Internet Explorer/Edge with its Operating System. Now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when People don’t use their Content Services so much, or when they start Lowering Data Caps and People find they can either Watch AT&T Owned Content all month long, or a Tiny Bit of YouTube or Netflix before Paying Overage Charges.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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