Sprint Charging 'Unlimited' Users $20 More for Unthrottled Video (dslreports.com) 94
Sprint has a new "unlimited" data plan for users that want to watch videos in full-HD (1080p) screen resolution. Dubbed "Unlimited Freedom Premium" plan, it offers the same features as the "Unlimited Freedom" plan with the bonus of allowing users to stream videos in full-HD. Also, it costs $20 extra. DSLReports points out the obvious:Last week we noted that Sprint unveiled its new Unlimited Freedom plan, which provides unlimited text, voice and data for $60 a month for one line, $40 a month for a second line, and $30 a month for every line thereafter (up to a maxiumum of 10). But the plan also, following on T-Mobile's heels, throttles all video by default to 480p, a move that has raised the hackles of net neutrality advocates.
A wise sage once said... (Score:5, Funny)
480p ought to be enough for anybody.
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WHOOOOOSH!!!!!!
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it's a violation of my human rights (Score:2)
preventing me from watching youtube and netflix in full HD all day long
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On a mobile device too lol.
We really need some laws against false advertising (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do we still allow these companies to openly commit fraud?
Re:We really need some laws against false advertis (Score:5, Insightful)
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A cap can be on the amount of data or on the content of that data. If they treat the content differently because of what it is, then that's not neutral, is it?
Re:We really need some laws against false advertis (Score:4, Insightful)
If they treat the content differently because of what it is, then that's not neutral, is it?
In terms of "net neutrality", it is. Nothing says that certain kinds of content cannot be treated certain ways, only that it has to apply to all sources.
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Also, its not because these companies are profit greedy. They are as greedy as you can get, I don't doubt that. But they are doing it because streaming in HD just wastes too much bandwidth. For mobile phones, the BTS's are very rare, so you share it with many people. Its totally different for cable bound internet. Or even wifi that then goes over cables again for that matter. There is a technical argument in throttling videos.
So I completely agree with them doing this. Maybe they should throttle all traffic
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For mobile phones, the BTS's are very rare, so you share it with many people. Its totally different for cable bound internet. Or even wifi that then goes over cables again for that matter. There is a technical argument in throttling videos.
So I completely agree with them doing this. Maybe they should throttle all traffic, and not just videos, because its probably hard to decide what is video and what is not from the ISP perspective (except its unencrypted).
I've noticed mobile phone apps (whether it's browser, app for specific video site or video generic video player) to pretty much limit the maximum resolution (where possible - boy this kind of throttling must be annoying when the site/service doesn't serve but one resolution, and that resolution is HD) to what the device is actually capable, but not all mobile devices or even just phones (and yes, a tablet with SIM - or any other means for calls/sms/data on mobile network - are phones by definition, although
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Network neutrality is about transporting all data the same regardless of what content it is or where it came from, so yes it does say certain types of content can not be treated differently.
Even if we go down your rabbit hole, they are only throttling certain protocols/codecs that they can detect so lots of less popular protocols/codecs are not throttled and any hot new protocols/codecs wouldn't be either. How is it fair if your video is throttled for using a certain protocol/codec but mine isn't because I
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Network neutrality is about transporting all data the same regardless of what content it is or where it came from,
No, it is not. Net neutrality is about NOT differentiating transport based on source. As in, not prioritizing the ISP's own video service over another vendor's. As in not charging more for an outside vendor's video streams than the ISP's own service. It is about the ISP not getting an advantage in the commercial marketplace of ideas by hindering outsider competition for services.
It has NOTHING to do with prohibiting differences in transport for different kinds of data. The Internet was designed with the ca
Re: We really need some laws against false adverti (Score:1)
How do they tell the difference between a hd video streaming over https and a large file downloading over https?
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Most online video services will automatically change resoloution and/or compression level based on detected throughput. So simply throttling traffic to/from known video distribution servers should be sufficient.
The goal is almost certainly not to catch every single video. It's to drive down the average usage per user.
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A cap can be on the amount of data or on the content of that data. If they treat the content differently because of what it is, then that's not neutral, is it?
Sure it is! What net neutrality means is that if you have an internet connection, you should be able to pull content from any source. Like if you are w/ Acme Broadcasting, you shouldn't be required by them to subscribe for a TV package in order to watch CBS programming online
Network speeds vary all the time, unfortunately. Similarly, they could vary for content. In fact, they would! If you are downloading Paris Hilton's last porn video, it will certainly take a lot more to download than APK's /etc/ho
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After a year or more of taking break from slashdot it's kinda funny, though also sad, to see in the very first thread that nothings changed in the way how large number of yanks always willing and eager to defend large corporations right to kick them in the face and surprise bearfuck them :P
I pay 29.90€ a month, and this is prepaid (=more expensive), for unlimited calls/sms/data (4G) - and that means unlimited. Although the speed rarely measures as said 50mbps, it's still mostly fairly good (generally o
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It's unlimited data not unlimited resolution.
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Excuse the insult but are you an idiot? If its NOT video what does 'resolution' got to do with it, data is data and a 'video stream' is just data? So, if I simply download a video file (don't stream it as its usually thought of) that has HD resolution & watch it 'offline' that's ok, but if I "stream" it I have to pay extra? How does Sprint know what the nature of the data stream is to begin with? Consider if I encrypt the transfer (https, ftps etc.) how does Sprint know its a 'video stream' and not just
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Well put.
The problem is that nobody understands what net neutrality actually is and they get distracted by "free" stuff that takes away their FREEdom.
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Well put.
The problem is that nobody understands what net neutrality actually is and they get distracted by "free" stuff that takes away their FREEdom.
Sorry, but could you explain what exactly is it you are referring to with 'distracted by "free" stuff that takes away their FREEdom'? :)
Please understand I'm only asking because I'm not sure I understand and I don't mean anything else by it. I'm not like many people who act and feel like they got it right even when they 1st had to come up with something that the other person "might have meant"
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It has become common for mobile carriers to give "free" data for certain things which is called 0-rating and many other similar terms. It is usually because those things are popular and use low amounts of data/low steady streams of data that don't cause big delays for other users on the network, or because someone else is paying for it (like facebook and wikipedia paid carriers in India for their services to be "free" to the end users).
The problem with this is that it is giving an unfair advantage to everyt
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Thank you, I understand. I don't think we have 0-rating stuff here in Finland, though I've heard of it, that's probably why I didn't even think of it.
What you suggest sounds reasonable, and it's pretty much what we have here, except for the bursting (as far as I know).
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I'm not expecting you're willing to explain what is it about this small group, which you're correct to say the ISP doesn't likely even care about, that makes them dorks?
And that, if you don't get it, was a rhetorical question, as you already associated circumventing an artificial limitation with illogical anti-social vandalism, without any logical connection whatsoever. Oh, and also doing it as AC.
Re:We really need some laws against false advertis (Score:4, Insightful)
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From where (Score:2)
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I'm not tearing up either, but it sure sounds like false advertising. Unlimited data is unlimited data. Video is data. This is the kind of thing Comcast got in trouble for where they were targeting torrents and shooting resets at them. You have high speed internet, except when we decide you don't. Now it's HD video instead of torrents, but it's still the same BS.
Conflating with Network Neutrality (Score:2)
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Why don't you take 2 seconds to learn what net neutrality is before talking about it. Slowing one type of content/protocol is one of the oldest and most definitive examples of what it is.
If they slowed ALL traffic to a certain rate then it would be neutral but slowing specific things is not. There are other issues like 0-rating that are more questionable/arguable but slowing a specific type of content down is not neutral.
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Seriously read up on your history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The term arose when ISP's were throttling P2P traffic and is about treating all DATA equally similar to how telephone network "common carrier" laws made them treat all calls (data) equally. Networks slowing competitors is just an example of the degenerate behavior that could happen without neutrality to all data.
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The term arose when ISP's were throttling P2P traffic and is about treating all DATA equally
SOURCES. As in, not prioritizing or preferencing ISP services over external services.
The Internet was DESIGNED with the ability to handle different types of data differently. It's part of the protocol. There's a reason -- a very good reason -- to be able to do that. And as long as the source of the data isn't what differentiates the processing, it meets the definition of and reason for net neutrality.
Networks slowing competitors is just an example of the degenerate behavior that could happen without neutrality to all data.
Net neutrality does not now and has never applied to "all data", and slowing competitors down is the very r
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In your view of what net neutrality is, how can throttling P2P still be considered a violation since it was the primary motivator of the movement? What you described would allow them to throttle P2P however they like as long as they didn't use the protocols themselves.
There is a huge difference between protocols handling data differently as part of their design (ie. UDP doesn't guarantee delivery, TCP does) and ISP's throttling specific content. Everything at layer 7 should be considered off limits for ISP'
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how can throttling P2P still be considered a violation since it was the primary motivator of the movement?
First, just saying "P2P" doesn't say what the service was. Throttling P2P video from outside sources while allowing ISP video services unlimited throughput is an example of a violation.
But it wasn't P2P that was "the primary motivator". It was throttling (and in some cases just congestion due to border gateway issues) that was the primary motivator. That awful Comcast, for example, that allowed congestion at the border gateway to limit people's access to NetFlix, even though Comcast video services are on
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VPN? (Score:3)
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T-Mobile gives you the option to turn off the throttling but while it is throttled some popular video services are 0-rated (doesn't eat your data limit) but all other video gets slowed even though it's not 0-rated and while the throttle option is off then everything counts towards your cap. Going through a VPN on T-Mobile should avoid the throttling but also count towards your cap just as turning off the option would, but may be useful for temporarily avoiding throttling when you want.
For these Sprint unlim
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VPN usage is limited to 5GB/month.
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And how would they check that? Sure they can filter IPSEC traffic but there are many more VPN types, over HTTP, SOCKS, SSL and quite a few 'experimental' ones (encapsulated in DNS or ICMP).
Next step, "Unlimited, unthrottled, un-down-rez'd" (Score:2)
.
The onslaught of news fees is all about profit, not benefit to customers.
HD on cellular (Score:2)
Re: HD on cellular (Score:1)
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For many of us, our cellular connections are much faster than our home wired connections.
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The cellular market is competitive, while the wired internet market is not. It won't be long before cellular internet service is cheaper than wired. In fact that has long since happened for light users.
You get charged about 3X as much for the same DSL speeds today as you did a decade ago. Cable has side-stepped the issue by just NOT providing lower speed service, and having their lowest-cost offerin
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To my understanding the point of unlimited data is to have unlimited data. Besides you don't need HD for video calls, let alone plain voice calls via internet.
And unless their outdated, any video service today probably defaults to maximum resolution of the device. However not necessary of the device that connects to ISP, it may also be a tablet, laptop or even desktop PC that's using wi-fi hotspot shared from the phone. In fact I'm currently connecting that way from home too - unfortunately that means I hav
Well, damn. (Score:2)
Dubbed "Unlimited Freedom Premium" plan, ...
I thought you couldn't put a premium on Freedom -- especially "Unlimited" kind.
Why not just charge for what people use? (Score:2)
Don't require people to buy a data plan just because they have a phone the carrier considers "smart". Don't offer "unlimited" plans that have so many exclusions as to be useless for anything people actually want to do.
They should just do what they do here in Australia and offer a range of plans, each of which would come with a certain amount of calls and text and MMS and data. If people need lots of data, they can pay more and get a plan with lots of data. If they dont, they get a plan with less data. And i
Cricket unlimted (Score:1)
I switched to Cicket's unlimited plan its $70 and $5 off for autopay so I pay $65 a month which includes taxes. I use almost 100GB a month streaming video. Its capped at 8Megabits a second however its fast enough to steam HD with Amazon Prime and Youtube.
Encrypt everything (Score:2)
Services are increasingly moving towards HTTPS by default, which is awesome. Besides the obvious privacy implications, it prevents these ISP wankers from messing with your content, as it all becomes a sea of bytes (as it should be).
There have been hints of this sort of meddling in the past, when providers started injecting ad banners and other cruft into web responses.
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Depends what they consider "VPN' usage, which is restricted to 5GB / month. I'm guessing anything encrypted? https://support.sprint.com/sup... [sprint.com]
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Well, I was thinking more at the service level. Unless it's the HTTPSEverywhere extension I have running, Youtube already is. On a related note, that extension is great. (Support the EFF!) With HTTPS, they only know the host name, not URLs or heaven forbid, content of requests and responses.
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Heartbleed was/is a critical issue, and easy to exploit to be sure. On the other hand, you had to attack a server to try and find useful bits of information such as the private key for that server. Bad as it is, I'd far prefer that to *plaintext*, in which every knob-puller between you and the server is free to muck with it as much as they want, with no clue that it's going on. With all its warts, even the unpatched servers provide more help than hindrance, should it be used.
ASCII-based plaintext protocols
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OpenVPN is allowed 5GB / month. https://support.sprint.com/sup... [sprint.com]
I have Sprint. I'm not angry. (Score:2)
I pay 29€... (Score:2)
...for unlimited calls, SMS & data (4G) for month; and it's prepaid.
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I might be willing to cash out for Unlimited Freedom Ultra Premium Extra+
No, thank you (Score:2)
I'll wait for Unlimited Freedom Premium XL Gold HD Plus Plus plan, thankyouverymuch.
Not the worst class of violation of neutrality (Score:2)