- AT&T vehemently opposes net neutrality law enforcement.
- The law implies that the wireless carriers will not be able to manipulate the bandwidth.
Introduction:
The telecom company AT&T is heavily disappointed with recently announced net neutrality laws which blame the state as the reason behind why it can not offer certain data features to the consumers for free.
“We regret the inconvenience to customers caused by California’s new ‘net neutrality law,” AT&T said in a Wednesday blog post.
Details around the law enforcement:
Last month US District Court Judge John Mendes ruled that the state’s net neutrality laws will be officially enforced. This implies that wireless carriers like AT&T will have to treat all the incoming internet traffic in the same way. This law in California had been in limbo since the year 2018 because the Trump-era DOJ had filed a lawsuit against the state. In the lawsuit, it claimed that it had no authority to enact its net neutrality laws.
California’s had held off on the law enforcement and the lawsuit never really picked up the pace. Therefore the DOJ had officially dropped the lawsuit against California when Biden took over the administration.
The history behind the opposition against the law:
As part of the new law ISPs and wireless carriers cannot block the websites. They can’t manipulate the bandwidth or charge money for specific online content. Therefore ISPs can no longer dictate which sites, content, or applications receive preferential treatment.
This implies that AT&T no longer reserves the ability to provide zero-rating schemes or data cap exemptions to its subscribers and users. The carrier had done that by providing its in-house streaming service HBO Max, an exemption. This meant that customers wouldn’t be able to see the data usage towards their monthly limit. This is about to change.
The companies owned by AT&T:
AT&T acquired WarnerMedia in 2018 which owns HBO. The company launched the HBO Max streaming service in May 2020. Since AT&T owned the streaming services, it had decided to not count the data usage toward its customers’ monthly data calculation. The company’s “sponsored data” system lets any company pay the career to exempt it from the data caps.
Statement from the company:
“AT&T Mobility has for years openly invited any entity to become a wireless data sponsor on the same terms and conditions,” said the company in its statement.
When you’re on the streaming service you are not counting towards the customers’ data caps. Well, AT&T has not disclosed what any other streaming services are currently taking them up on that offer. In the past, there have been reports that large streaming companies like Netflix have paid AT&T to bring down the buffering time. But currently, Netflix streaming comes towards the data cap. Eventually, Judge Mendez had to deny that AT&T and other ISP lobby groups presented an injunction and now these groups are appealing the decision in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It seems that internet service providers are not yet done with fighting the net neutrality law just yet.
Conclusion:
The bad part of the story is that if you are an AT&T subscriber who’s been binge-watching HBO Max, then chances are that the streaming is going to finish off your entire monthly data allowance.
