AT&T May Try To Charge FaceTime Users, Raising Net Neutrality Questions
from the or,-time-to-find-another-carrier dept
One of the main concerns of those who worry about net neutrality is how a network provider might block or charge extra for competing services. For example, telcos who still make a fair bit of money from voice services might not like competing services like Skype. Or... Apple FaceTime. So it's interesting to see a report from 9to5Mac suggesting that AT&T may be planning to charge extra to use FaceTime over cellular. This came out when testing iOS6 and receiving a popup requiring "activation." Here's the screenshot of what 9to5 saw:Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: charges, competition, facetime, ios, iphone, net neutrality
Companies: apple, at&t
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Facetime?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Transport Layer
In otherwords a neutral dumb pipe. Endof.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
They already cap internet usage, they charge you for that internet usage. Someone used the water analogy already: charging you for water, but charging you extra if you use it to water your garden, and "enabling the service" of using it to flush the toilet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Get Serious
No wonder the world is doomed.
Nothing short of killing these types of soulless "people" will stop them from screwing more money out of you every single way they can and with every single lie they can get away with.
The mistake is depending of for-profit businesses with monopolies enforced by the farce of laws made by the politicians they purchased, period.
Like I said, the world is doomed (thanks to the existence of two types of people: 1) evil greedy soulless bastards and 2) the naive sheeple they bilk).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Update
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/17/att-facetime-charge/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
answers on the point of a pin, please!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Update
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Why do companies push people to other services?
I was at a talk given by some Sprint employees, not sure what level they were in the company, where one of them mentioned this fact. So at least someone in one of the companies recognized that they may be obsoleting themselves.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Update
At first blush, besides a way to double dip, it seems to me a way to eliminate the small app developers from making high bandwidth apps.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
apparently that's not all ATT is doing
http://www.bgr.com/2012/07/18/att-shared-data-plans-pricing-launch-date/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Get Serious
They make "secret backroom deals" that make news headlines, they constantly provoke the public, and when their plans fall through, they throw tantrums, and then try the same thing again, expecting a different result. It's the most pathetic form of villainy I've ever seen.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
It's part of their nature
Why wouldn't they? They already do this sort of thing for tethering. Doing it with FaceTime is little different.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Why do companies push people to other services?
I do exactly this. In practice, the times when I actually need to use any serious bandwidth are the times when I'm near a WiFi AP. When I'm away from suitable APs, 90% of the time I'm traveling or engaging in some real life activity, and my bandwidth needs are very small.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Why do companies push people to other services?
A data balance that will let me check e-mail, etc. all month can get sucked down in 30 seconds of video. So I prefer having the "speedbump" in place. For too many apps, it's not an option to use wifi only.
As far as devs paying for data, it doesn't seem too different from using toll-free phone numbers. It's only a problem if this model gets forced on all the devs.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Why do companies push people to other services?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
I would happily do so, but alas I lack a paintbrush large enough to make the answer fit onto the point properly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
However, they could very well do this and keep most customers. As an AT&T customer, I know they use some dirty tricks to keep you on their network. Their contracts last 2 years, and they offer discounted upgrades after 18 months into a contract if you renew your contract (you can get a 16gb iPhone of the latest generation for $200, and many phones for free). So for 6 months, you get to contemplate getting a shiny new phone, staying strong and waiting for your contract to expire (they often give you deeper discounts if you try this), or a $400 contract termination fee. Considering how the iPhone 5 is supposed to release with iOS 6, a lot of people will just go for the upgrade.
However, last time I checked, AT&T has no service to compete with FaceTime, so they're really shooting themselves in the foot if they actually plan to charge for it.
And yes, they do charge for tethering. However, it's not too hard to jailbreak and get free tethering. They can't catch you. Paid FaceTime usage would also be easily circumvented. Hell, there are already things that let you do FaceTime over 3G.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Charges
I wonder how long it would take for an Anti-trust suit would follow if AT&T actually went through with this plan.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Yes, I do this. (Actually, I just replace the OS with Cyanogenmod, which avoids any carrier's crippling as well as all those awful apps that you can't delete, but same difference).
However, it's wrong to say that they can't catch you. They most certainly can, but it's pretty easy to avoid being caught unless you start using lots of bandwidth. The penalty if they catch you is that they automatically enroll you in the tethering plan.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Facetime?
First off, FaceTime is way more reliable than Skype for two person video conferencing. Having used them both on my 4th Gen iPod Touch, FaceTime is more reliable because it is a Peer To Peer connection. The synchronization between users at 2Mbits down and 256Kbits up is compareable to that of a standard land line telophone. Skype delays because you have to log into their servers and use their features remotely to establish all communication. FaceTime you just need Apple's FaceTime servers to act as a telephone switch board to make your connection.
Now with Skype at the above mentioned speeds, the highest reliable resolution is around the size of a postage stamp on your device's (320x240). With FaceTime you get 30 frames a second at 960x480 and at 324dpi)
You should also note that FaceTime operates totally differently from Skype. Skype keeps you logged in during and after the call. FaceTime just needs your Apple ID e-mail log in to tell the other user who is calling, and to tell Apple's server to connect you. It is like a telephone switch board, once you stop a FaceTime session, the connection is lost.
.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The same is currently true for Facetime over 3G so how would AT&T charging extra for this violate Net Neutrality 'guidelines' but mobile hotspots not?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No more ATanT
They also have a cool thing there that if you refer 3 people then your phone bill reduces to $29 and if you continue to refer people you'll actually start making an income from all of it. I think that's way cooler then having a huge phone bill every month.
[ link to this | view in thread ]