Campaign Action
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in killing net neutrality, insisted that companies weren't going to immediately start violating it once it was gone. Yeah, he was lying, and so was big telecom when they promised they'd play nice. Here's the first wave of shutting down the open internet. Comcast announced this week it's putting speed limits on mobile video content and is going to charge extra for high-definition video over the cellular network, reports Ars Technica.
The short version is that videos will be throttled to 480p (DVD quality) on all Comcast mobile plans unless you pay extra, while Comcast's "unlimited" plan will limit mobile hotspot speeds to 600kbps. Only customers who pay by the gigabyte will get full-speed tethering, but the cost would add up quickly as Comcast charges $12 for each gigabyte.
Don't you love that "unlimited" plan that limits hotspot speeds? Unlimited gall to call it that. Ars saves the really infuriating part for last. Comcast is telling their customers that all this throttling is in the customer's best interest: "At this speed, you'll conserve data so that it takes longer to reach the 20GB threshold, but you'll still be able to do many of the online activities you enjoy." How perfectly Comcast.
This is going to be a summer of action on net neutrality, starting today. You can use this tool to call your representative and tell them to restore net neutrality.
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