Using a SIM card on a recent trip to Mexico, where net neutrality was never a thing, was really interesting.<p>Cell service plans come with separate tariffs for regular data and "social" data, which works only in the walled garden of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Insta, etc., and the "social" data is much cheaper.<p>Even though the positive reinforcement was not as draconian as stuff like this, where they're obviously trying to dissuade use, it was still pretty creepy.
Tip of the iceberg.<p>Carriers see communication services as their turf, and they go to byzantine lengths to protect that.<p>Politically it can get funny.<p>If you work at a handset manufacturer, and sit in on sales calls, and one of your team members brings up anything <i>remotely</i> related to this or VOIP, you might see the carrier buyers get visibly upset and literally walk out of the room.<p>I could never tell if they were 'actually' upset, or 'pretend professionally' upset.<p>But it's funny the games that are played.
This is key - "The researchers bought a Sprint wireless plan to try to detect throttling of Skype in the lab, but couldn’t replicate the experience of the Wehe app users. This is likely because it affects only certain subscription plans, but not the one the researchers purchased, they said."<p>One app is saying this is occurring without anyone being able to duplicate the claim in a lab. Bloomberg could do better by getting a second source.
Also see the researchers' own page: <a href="https://dd.meddle.mobi/USStats.html" rel="nofollow">https://dd.meddle.mobi/USStats.html</a>
Sprint is legit garbage, but it is worth noting that even under Wheeler, Net Neutrality rules have <i>never</i> applied to mobile networks. It’s a big reason many of us were disappointed with the legislation even when it was passed. I’d rather have something than nothing, but mobile carriers have always been expent from NN.
One thing most people do not understand is that the former net neutrality rules did not prohibit throttling, in and of itself. Every rule and clause in the net neutrality bill has a little clause following "<i>Though shall not [...] except for reasonable network management.</i>" What's "reasonable network management"? 400+ pages and it was not well defined. It's something that would be decided on a case-by-case basis. But ultimately if any carrier could create a compelling argument that some service was causing undue congestion on their network, they had complete freedom to throttle it.<p>As an aside you'll note that now, and then, when companies are found to be doing they'll immediately scream "reasonable network management." Search for <i>sprint "reasonable network management"</i> and you'll get years of results such as [1][2][3]. Give them a cut of the profits and suddenly that congestion would be considered much more reasonable - a la Netflix/Comcast.<p>[1] - <a href="https://www.sprint.com/en/legal/legal-regulatory-and-consumer-resources.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.sprint.com/en/legal/legal-regulatory-and-consume...</a><p>[2] - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/nonprofit-groups-say-sprint-will-unfairly-throttle-data-after-wimax-shutdown/" rel="nofollow">https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/10/nonpr...</a><p>[3] - <a href="https://civsourceonline.com/2015/10/15/sprint-sued-by-non-profits-over-clearwire-lease-for-wimax/" rel="nofollow">https://civsourceonline.com/2015/10/15/sprint-sued-by-non-pr...</a>
Not that it's Skype's fault they're getting throttled, but I wish I had an alternative to Skype.<p>I haven't found a service that lets me dial worldwide (particularly USA/Canada) at anywhere near the rates Skype offers.
the services named are all quite high bandwidth compared to regular websites. can it not be that this is automated throttling to prevent congestion on parts of the networks?
Well Microsoft changed the underlying p2pness of skype so I can't blame Sprint for throttling that laggy buggy inconsistent network topology ineptly and inaptly still referred to as "Skype" R.I.P.
Does Sprint sell video chat? I don't understand the anticompetitveness angle. Voice calls are free on cell phone networks, and Skype users pay for data. How would Sprint profit from giving its users a bad Skype experience?<p>Something doesn't add up.