Tag Archive for: throttling

Verizon throttling firefighters may have violated FCC rule, Democrats say

A Verizon logo on a red background.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Spencer Platt)

Senate Democrats yesterday asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Verizon’s throttling of firefighters during California’s largest-ever wildfire.

US Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) also sent a letter to Verizon, accusing the carrier of misleading the fire department in its marketing of unlimited data. Additionally, the Democrats sent letters to the other major carriers asking for commitments that they won’t throttle the data of public safety officials while they are responding to emergencies.

Though FCC Chairman Ajit Pai eliminated net neutrality rules, the commission maintains a revised version of a transparency rule that requires carriers to publicly disclose enough information about network management practices and commercial terms of service “to enable consumers to make informed choices regarding the purchase and use of such services.”

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica

Fire dept. rejects Verizon’s “customer support mistake” excuse for throttling

Enlarge / A West Covina firefighter pulls a hose away from a horse barn that burns as the Mendocino Complex Fire moves through the area on July 31, 2018 in Lakeport, California. (credit: Getty Images | Justin Sullivan)

A fire department whose data was throttled by Verizon Wireless while it was fighting California’s largest-ever wildfire has rejected Verizon’s claim that the throttling was just a customer service error and “has nothing to do with net neutrality.” The throttling “has everything to do with net neutrality,” a Santa Clara County official said.

Verizon yesterday acknowledged that it shouldn’t have continued throttling Santa Clara County Fire Department’s “unlimited” data service while the department was battling the Mendocino Complex Fire. Verizon said the department had chosen an unlimited data plan that gets throttled to speeds of 200kbps or 600kbps after using 25GB a month but that Verizon failed to follow its policy of “remov[ing] data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations.”

“This was a customer support mistake” and not a net neutrality issue, Verizon said.

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica

Verizon accused of throttling Netflix and YouTube, admits to “video optimization”

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | MrsWilkins)

Verizon Wireless customers this week noticed that Netflix’s speed test tool appears to be capped at 10Mbps, raising fears that the carrier is throttling video streaming on its mobile network.

When contacted by Ars this morning, Verizon acknowledged using a new video optimization system but said it is part of a temporary test and that it did not affect the actual quality of video. The video optimization appears to apply both to unlimited and limited mobile plans.

But some YouTube users are reporting degraded video, saying that using a VPN service can bypass the Verizon throttling. The Federal Communications Commission generally allows mobile carriers to limit video quality as long as the limitations are imposed equally across different video services despite net neutrality rules that outlaw throttling. The net neutrality rules have exceptions for network management.

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Technology Lab – Ars Technica

Want to know how to get around Wi-Fi throttling? … What’s it worth to you?

The specifics of the workaround are comically beyond my technical expertise, but more interesting anyway is the disagreement as to whether the effort involved even makes sense. From the section of Reddit devoted to networking comes this thread, “Getting around Wi-Fi throttling using OSPF and GRE.”

“So, you are at a hotel for a week of training. The website said the hotel has ‘free Wi-Fi.’ Yay.

“1Mbps up, 1Mbps down, free.

“5 Mbps up, 50Mbps down, $ 5/day. Boo.

“The solution: multiple routing tables and some GRE tunnels back to a gateway router at corporate.”

It’s not as simple as that single sentence may sound, especially if you’re not a networking professional, so if you want the details you can find them here.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network World Paul McNamara