AT&T tells the FCC it'll cut off wireless P2P users
by Donald Melanson 
posted Jul 30th 2008 at 12:08PM
It looks like the FCC's investigation into Comcast's questionable traffic management is turning up a number of interesting details, the latest of which comes from AT&T's Robert Quinn, who told FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell that, "use of a P2P file sharing application would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user's service could be terminated." Quinn was apparently quick to add, however, that AT&T hasn't yet kicked anyone off the network for using P2P. Still, Commissioner McDowell apparently intends to use AT&T's statement to argue against the FCC's forthcoming order that contends Comcast secretly downgraded P2P traffic, saying that Comcast's throttling of traffic isn't as bad as AT&T blocking it all together. The merits of that argument aside, as TechDirt points out, given that AT&T's beef with P2P is that it makes use of "continuous (rather than bursty) transmissions at high data rates," their position does open up a number of interesting questions about streaming apps like Pandora, which are similarly data-intensive but, last we checked, still working just fine on AT&T's network.[Via Tech Dirt]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MadMike @ Jul 30th 2008 12:42PM
Pathetic. Not that I would use P2P on a 3G connection, I'm not a sadist.
If Verizon FiOS started doing that, that's another story. A person might take offense to that. Download a port scanner, search through CERT for open "holes" and flex their assembly & C programming skills. You know, using traceroute could give you subnets worth scanning from 0 to 255.
Of course, that person would be better off finding the instructions on-line for the DIY Pringles can wifi antenna and taking a drive.
Lets see how long they keep up that practice when all their websites point to goatse.cx
Jim @ Jul 30th 2008 1:24PM
"their position does open up a number of interesting questions about streaming apps like Pandora, which are similarly data-intensive but, last we checked, still working just fine on AT&T's network."
Pandora works fine because you PAY for it. iPhone might be free, but other devices still have only a free 5 day trial. And, I believe AT&T charges twice that of Sprint, so they're definitely making sure they're covering the data usage.
Slingbox definitely seems like an at-risk application though. I've noticed my bitrate seems to be throttled back pretty substantially after a day or two of heavy usage. I wouldn't be surprised if carriers try and block that usage and require a separate charge for the data.
Bring on WiMAX!
miklm @ Jul 30th 2008 3:38PM
My reading of my wireless contracts on both AT&T and Verizon appear to indicate that ANY "streaming media" is explicitly disallowed, as well as P2P. I'm not sure how Pandora is getting around that, other than the fact that you can't really use it on the iPhone for an extended period (it doesn't run in the background like the iPod app)
As much as I'm against ISP's monitoring and filtering and terminating service, the ONLY case where I can somewhat empathize is with cellular providers, because they clearly have underbuild and oversold their data capacities and its just not meant for extended or "primary" internet connections. Getting Exchange mail pushed to your smartphone or using the aircard to check email and download a document from the office is one thing, but BitTorrent on a cellular data connection? Why would you even want to do that?!? If I need to download something, I'll find a wifi spot or just wait till I get to the home/office/hotel to suck bandwidth.
Ben @ Jul 30th 2008 3:27PM
Hmmm ... I'm pretty sure AT&T has some sort of partnership with Pandora (or some similar service whose name I can't remember), because last time I was in an AT&T store they had a big demo area flaunting it.Seems to me like they are not being entirely truthful about things, and are just trying to limit bandwidth whenever they can get away with it.
dhaasgob @ Jul 30th 2008 7:43PM
AOL Radio on the iPhone does streaming, and it is not only legit but popular and uses up data just as much as a P2P can (sometimes even more). Look at MobileTV on other phone, and you can understand that AT&T's double standard is plain stupid.
Although AT&T says they allow some 'authorized' streaming programs (XM Radio, AT&T MobileTV, etc), the 'source' of streaming really shouldn't matter.
Besides, with 3G and other items, people are starting to use cell phones as their primary internet source, especially with the popularity of smartphone devices that utilize non-WAP sites. It's inevitable that this will become the primary source of data use. Just as more people use cell phones as their only phone, portable data use will skyrocket soon.
Cell companies need to realize they should work on getting the structure to handle the impending surges of data use, not kick people off due to stupidity and ignorance.
pheer6224 @ Jul 31st 2008 12:38AM
This is why I stick with T mobile. They don't do stuff like that, just easily hackable stuff.