Net Neutrality

T-Mobile's "Binge On" service allows more video apps to stream media to devices without using up the customer's data allotment. While for the end customer this may seem like a really great deal, (who doesn't like so-called free data?), it continues to hold the door open for internet services to charge different amounts of money for different internet services. True Net Neutrality requires that all internet be treated the same - here that's just not true.

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UK wireless carrier Three has announced that it will begin block ads for all its subscribers at the network level. The company has partnered with the startup Shine, with the intent to remove "excessive and irrelevant mobile ads" for users, and in turn reduce the strain on their bandwidth. Three says this move isn't an attempt to eliminate mobile advertising altogether, but instead is to give customers "more control and choice" over what appears on their devices.

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Last year, Facebook launched their “Free Basics” program in India, which promised to bring free internet to all the citizens of the country. On the surface, that seems like a great and noble move. Unfortunately, not all was as it seemed, which is why in December, the country moved to ban the service. Facebook has been fighting hard ever since, but that battle appears to have come to a close.

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Completely disregarding the rules of net neutrality put in place last year by the FCC, Verizon has just made a controversial change to its own Go90 mobile video service: any content watching on the app won't count towards customers' LTE data limits. Watching videos from any other source? That's going to eat into their monthly allotment. The move follows rival T-Mobile with its Binge On service, which also throttles video content.

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T-Mobile CEO John Legere isn't known for holding back when it comes to press statements, and especially when it comes to less formal channels like social networks. While sometimes entertaining, it does come at the cost of sometimes muddling issues and even turning away allies. That's is certainly what the outspoken Legere experienced after he had publicly lashed out at privacy advocacy group EFF over the carrier's Binge On video streaming feature. And, uncharacteristic of the chief exec, he does acknowledge his error and even apologizes for it.

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Facebook wants to bring limited free internet service to some of the developing nations around the world and in India, the plan has run into some issues. An Indian regulator has asked that the free internet service be banned while an investigation is conducted to ensure that the free web access doesn't pose a threat to net neutrality.

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The FCC is sometimes seen as the enemy and sometimes as the advocate of consumer rights and interests, depending on which side of the fence you're on. Or on which issue. Recently, its new net neutrality rules have put it on not so friendly terms with some in the Internet and tech businesses. But this latest statement might earn it back some points, at the expense of irking some privacy advocates. It has said that it won't be imposing rules on Internet companies that would block or hinder them from tracking user's online activities.

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It seems AT&T may be tampering with mobile users' internet traffic for their own benefit on their "free" public WiFi hotspots. The company's hotspot at the Dulles International Airport in Virginia was found to be using ad-injecting code to deliver more advertisements to users while they browse the web. Stanford lawyer and computer scientist Jonathan Mayer made the discovery, detailing the tactic on his blog Web Policy.

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The European Commission has announced that an agreement has been reached that will finally put an end to roaming charges within Europe on June 15th, 2017. That means in just under 2 years Europeans will be able to travel to other countries in the European Union (EU), and pay the same cell phone rates as they do at home. This includes countries like France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, and many, many more.

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In addition to Time Warner Cable maintaining its reputation as one of the U.S.'s most-hated ISPs, it looks like the company is about to become the first face a lawsuit for violating the FCC's new net neutrality rules. The update rules went into effect roughly a week ago, and now the Washington Post is reporting that one company is preparing to sue TWC for charging them with much higher rates in order to avoid throttled speeds — basically, holding its internet traffic for ransom.

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In early May we talked about a coalition of companies that had teamed up to try and get a federal appeals court to suspend net neutrality rules and prevent them from going into effect, that appeal has failed. The coalition of firms was led by AT&T and counted several other companies as members. Originally, the FCC had ruled that the roll out of net neutrality rules would start this past February and would reclassify internet as a utility.

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Internet ads have become one of the necessary nuisances of our mobile era. We don't like seeing them, but without them, who knows how many website and services would cease to exist. However, at least one European mobile carrier seems prepared to start blocking all online ads from appearing on your smartphone screen, although not necessarily for your benefit. The purpose, it seems, it to try to fight back against Google and break their hold on the web's advertising systems.

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