[3623] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Senator introduces bill to regulate data caps
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PRIVACY Forum mailing list)
Thu Dec 20 17:01:34 2012
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:27:56 -0800
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http://j.mp/WsEW28 (ars technica)
Wyden hopes to address three issues with his proposal. First, he wants
to increase the amount and accuracy of information provided to
consumers. His bill empowers the Federal Communications Commission to
regulate ISPs' methods for measuring bandwidth usage with an eye to
improving their accuracy. And it requires ISPs to provide their
customers with realtime tools for tracking their usage and comparing
them with the ISP's established caps. Second, the bill requires that
any data caps employed by ISPs function to "reasonably limit network
congestion without unnecessarily restricting Internet use." According
to a statement released with the legislation, "some data caps are so
blunt that they may work to discourage Internet use even when doing so
has no bearing on network congestion." The most ambitious part of the
legislation is a kind of network neutrality rule. It requires that any
data cap (which is defined to include metering schemes) not be used to
"provide preferential treatment of data that is based on the source or
content of the data." That would ban a practice that is frequently
mentioned by advocates of network neutrality regulation: the creation
of a paid "fast lane."
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--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
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