We really need to mandate serious fines for companies that violate trust regulations, like 20% of the estimated annual profits (based on the previous five years) or 5% of the company’s valuation. You know, the way a traffic ticket is about a week’s pay.
If their contempt of law is recurring or particularly egregious, nationalize the fucker.
What we need to do is treat internet access as a public utility rather than a private commodity. That means removing control of the essential infrastructure from private corporations, establishing strong public oversight, and heavily regulating how internet services are delivered to consumers.
The infrastructure already exists to provide virtually every American with high-speed internet access without compromising network performance. The argument that universal, affordable, high-speed internet is somehow technologically or economically unfeasible is largely a matter of priorities and policy.
Look at much of Europe, where consumers have access to significantly more internet service providers competing for the same customer base. In the United States, depending on where you live, you might have two or three realistic options, often with little meaningful competition between them. Three major providers dominate much of the market, and somehow they have managed to make an essential service extraordinarily expensive while offering consumers remarkably little choice.
I don’t believe internet access should be something corporations get to hold hostage for profit. It is essential infrastructure in the modern world, and it should be treated accordingly.
Companies should just be charged the fine multiplied by the number of offenses (like any individual being charged), then multiplied by the number of employees. Any amount over their available cash, becomes asset seizure (for “too critical to fail” companies) or make them go through bankruptcy to liquidate. Hell, you can even be nice and let them do a “payment plan” over a year or two, seizing all profit until the fine is paid in full. I bet companies would follow laws remarkably well if that were on the line.
The US would just be a couple Facebook privacy violations away from running a governmental surplus for the first time in decades!
Ceo’s in orange jumpsuits.
Municipal Broadband would be nice to have.
US is a weird country.
I live in EU, and I haven’t even heard of bandwidth quotas on home fiber. Cheap mobile subscriptions have some, though. But mostly it’s just no limit.
It used to be that way in the U.S. but Americans love companies extracting rent at the same time the public is subsidising them.
Americans are ignorant and utterly obsessed with laissez-faire capitalism
So they broke the law, so somebody there who signed off on this will be going to jail, right?
Right?
what’s funny is all these internet companies can just give everyone affordable high speed and still make a profit
In my country it is a normal practice that internet providers start fucking your connection up so you move to a different plan. Faking that the connection is failing, limiting downstream…
This is one reason why privacy is important, companies knowing your info directly impacts your wallet.
This particular one has nothing to do with privacy. They have to offer a specific type of plan by law, they nerfed that plan.
Which is not to say corporations knowing everything about you is good in any way, but this is simply a different issue (with corporations)
Agreed. Whether they can see your traffic or not, they can still determine how much bandwidth you’re using and what plan you’re using.
Reminder that net neutrality is dead. I use a VPN because otherwise my ISP decides on my behalf when I’ve had enough 1080p YouTube and slows down specifically that connection
Wait, you can get around T-Mobile’s YouTube throttling with a VPN? 50GB is a pittance; I am beyond done with having to switch to 480p after I use it all up in a day. Most games are 100+ GB these days and a Blu Ray REMUX can easily top 70GB, so it’s stupid easy to tear though 50GB simply by downloading one single game or movie. Unlimited should mean unlimited.
480p for you!
bigger they get, shadier they deal
50 GB? That’s a couple iOS or other OS update, or just streaming video a lot. A quick check shows my house over 500GB last month.
From the linked press release:
Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced an agreement with T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile), requiring the company to improve and expand the home internet service it offers eligible New Yorkers under the New York Affordable Broadband Act (ABA).
As a result of OAG’s investigation, T-Mobile will remove the data caps associated with its ABA plans and deliver 25 Mbps download speeds to all ABA plan subscribers, unless network congestion requires temporary reductions. In addition, T-Mobile will offer ABA plans in all areas where it provides home internet service and make its ABA plan webpage discoverable by search engines.
WHERE’S THE MOTHERFUCKING PUNISHMENT?! All I see is where they’re making T-mobile pinky-promise to start following the law they’ve been breaking all this time, while being allowed to keep every single goddamn penny of their ill-gotten gains!
NO mention of prison time for executives.
NO mention of punitive fines.
NO mention even of restitution to wronged customers, which is less than the bare fucking minimum!!!
The only even slightly useful part of that press release is this at the bottom, because every New Yorker should be absolutely livid about this weak-ass corporatist shit:
Contact the Governor’s Press Office
Contact us by phone:
Albany: (518) 474-8418
New York City: (212) 681-4640Contact us by email:
Press.Office@exec.ny.govI wonder if the low income people could get the maximum payout if they brought it to small claims?
Any punishment to the company will be paid by it’s customers anyway… For any large company fines and legal fees are calculated in as a cost of doing business. Prison for execs will just lead to fall guys getting the job while the real beneficiaries i.e. major stakeholders will pull the string from the shadows. If you want this to stop you have to go after them. Something like community service or % of their stock holdings going to the victims would be more effective imo.
Edit: You may not like what i’m saying but deep down you know i’m right.
Calling it affordable broadband while throttling people to 600 Kbps after 50 GB is like selling a discounted bus pass that turns into a pair of shoes after four rides. And hiding the plan from search engines? Apparently the cheapest way to provide low income internet is making sure nobody can find it.
isn’t is basically just a phone plan without a number?
Thats what all cellular plans are these days, an internet connection.
yeah, but cellular data is usually limited in the USA
As a former subscriber to both T-Mobile’s fixed wireless home internet and their subsidiary Mint Mobile’s fixed wireless home internet, this explains a lot.
Oh, Mint Mobile, as in “for just $15 a month” Mint Mobile?
I’m irrationally angry about Mint Mobile. They lean so heavily on the message that they’re cheaper than everybody else, and it is some of the most cynical, anti-consumer bullshit I’ve ever heard. You barely have to look into it at all before you see that offer is
- only valid for the first three months, and
- only for new users. On top of all that,
- those first three months are gonna cost you more than the advertised $15 because of hidden fees.
Outside of those first 3 months, they’re charging at least as much per month as most off-contract providers.
And I understand that none of the above is unique to Mint Mobile. I guess it’s Ryan Reynolds’ smarmy delivery in their ads that makes it seem so arrogant, like, “Yeah, I’m already rich, and I’m getting richer by lying to you about a cellphone contract, what are you gonna do about it? I’m Deadpool, just buy it, you idiots!”
Fuck Mint Mobile. And Ryan Reynolds, too.
I’m going to be completely serious here:
I signed up for Mint Mobile’s fixed home wireless service because I’d had such a great experience with their phone service. I’ve used their phone service for a long time, and it’s been rock solid.
It’s really weird, but their mobile service is fantastic. Their fixed home wireles service was absolutely awful. There’s literally no reason why it should have been bad, but I prepaid for three months of their fixed home wireless, and switched to a different provider very soon after signing up. Their mobile service is still very good, and absolutely worth it. It literally is $360 per year. One payment, once a year, unlimited. Works well.
I was completely baffled why their fixed wireless was so bad.
Artificial static throughput caps on modern networks are asinine and archaic, especially on shared mediums.
Network providers should permit shared best effort throughput, with a sliding temporal window which keeps a tally of usage and feeds into a ratcheting deprioritisation of slot allocations. This would permit short bursts of maximum throughput, which is more efficient and frees the channel quicker, and slots longer transfers into the remaining default channel space.
Differentiate service based on the dimensions of the monitored and enforced windows, not an arbitrary static sphincter.
work your job all day to help some ass hole boss get rich, come home to relax and your internet gets secretly slowed down - so your bosses kids can also own you online in literally any multiplayer FPS.
