Democratic Senators Probe US Wireless Carriers on Throttling

Three Democratic senators pressed CEOs of the top four U.S. wireless carriers Thursday on data throttling practices, citing a recent study using an measurement app developed by Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. It determined the carriers were slowing data from Amazon Prime, NBC Sports, Netflix, YouTube and other services. “Such practices would violate the principles of net neutrality and unfairly treat consumers who are unaware that their carriers are selecting which services receive faster or slower treatment,” wrote Richard Blumemthal, Conn.; Ed Markey, Mass.; and Ron Wyden, Ore., in letters to AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. “All online traffic should be treated equally, and internet service providers should not discriminate against particular content or applications for competitive advantage purposes or otherwise.” The legislators were supporters of the FCC 2015 net neutrality order, with Markey leading a Senate-passed Congressional Review Act resolution aimed at restoring the rules (see 1811140055). The senators said the carriers should give them information on how they “put into practice” any “policies to throttle or prioritize internet traffic for consumers.” They want to know by Dec. 6 whether the carriers allow their customers to “opt-in or opt-out of traffic differentiation,” and whether a customer’s choice would “change the price or affect their service, such as data allocation or requiring a different plan.” An AT&T spokesperson questioned the accuracy of the study, citing an earlier CTIA response that "thoroughly debunked" the app. CTIA said the app “failed to account for basic wireless network engineering, consumer preference, and how mobile content is distributed over the internet.” Sprint is reviewing the letter. T-Mobile and Verizon didn't comment.