Tag: carriers

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“Consumer Choice in Online Video Act” to prevent ISP’s from throttling competing services like Netflix

senator jay rockefellerA bill submitted Tuesday to the Senate looks like it could address several concerns we netizens have regarding the future of digital media and our relationships with internet service providers.

The “Consumer Choice in Online Video Act” presented by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) would make it illegal for ISP’s to engage  “in unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices” as it pertains to online video and other services.

Some feel there’s a conflict of interest when  company like Verizon for example, offers their own media service while maintaining the connection for competing services. Senator Rockefeller’s bill looks like it could  intersect Venn Diagram style with the FCC’s Open Internet order which Verizon is currently fighting in court. Verizon is arguing they have a first amendment right to knowingly degrade the connection for competitors utilizing their network. The FCC is claiming they have the authority to monitor and enforce net neutrality.

It’s very possible that Verizon might be able to successfully argue that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce net neutrality, so it looks like this Consumer Choice act could be a fall back position for those wanting to protect online services and competition. The bill would also include some helpful consumer additions like simpler clearer billing, more accurate usage monitoring for usage based billing and capped plans, and more support for antenna rental / online cable alternatives like Aereo.

While it’s great seeing some politicians step up to the plate on net neutrality, and this bill would certainly be better than allowing ISP’s to rig bandwidth in their favor, one has to wonder why we don’t see legislation explicitly granting the FCC the regulatory authority to protect consumer interests in this space.

You can read the full bill here (63 page PDF): Consumer Choice in Online Video Act

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HTC One Max coming to Sprint $249 on contract November 15

htc-one-max-en_us-f03-01Are you on Sprint? Do you want a phone with a big BIG screen? Well now you have options.

Along side the Galaxy Note 3, it’s now official that Lil’Yellow will carry the HTC One Max phablet for $249.99 on a two year contract ($749 off contract). It stands as the main opposition to Samsung’s offering at this tier, and might be a nice alternative for folks looking at a bold multi-media device. We covered the One Max following its unveiling, if you want more details on the phone.

Sprint is only taking “pre-registers” at the moment, but it’s expected to have a proper launch this Friday November 15.  I’d also expect to see units in Best Buys around that date as well.

(via Sprint)

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Do you get all the bandwidth you pay for? The FCC will release a speed test app for you to check!

ookla speedtest app screen shotBandwidth speeds and prices are a touchy subject here in the states right now. People often are surprised to see that their expensive internet plan does not guarantee a consistent top tier of speed. If you have “50 megs innernet”, that only means that your connection can burst up to that speed, not that it can sustain that speed.

To help consumers figure out if they are actually getting what they pay for, the FCC is jumping into the app business. More details will be announced on November 14th during the release, but it looks like Android users will get first crack at the FCC test app. With users contributing test results, the FCC hopes to develop a national report card for carriers and ISP’s. Seeing as how we pay more for data access than most other industrialized countries and still deal with caps and throttling, it’ll be nice to see if we actually get what we pay for.

I’m certainly interested in seeing how the app compares to other speed test apps like Ookla’s SpeedTest.net app (shown to the right). Expect a full test when the FCC’s solution drops!

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T-Mobile Un-Carrier Part II: Tablets Unleashed – Free Tablet Data for Life!

Nexus 7 (front horizontal)This is dirty (in a good way).

If you buy an LTE enabled tablet through T-Mobile, you can get one for $0 down and monthly payments. For example a New Nexus 7 will cost you $0 down and only$16 a month for 24 months. Here’s the kicker though, you will receive 200MB of data per month on LTE for free for as long as you own that tablet. Bumping up to $10 a month will give you unlimited data (only 500MB on LTE though).

Adding that Simple Choice tablet plan to your monthly bill will also include free worldwide data for those of you globe trotters out there who don’t want to worry about foreign data charges.

Right now the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is currently available, and Google’s Nexus 7 will arrive November 20th. What do you think folks?  T-Mo is getting kinda plucky aren’t they.

More info at Tablets Unleashed. Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “T-Mobile Un-Carrier Part II: Tablets Unleashed – Free Tablet Data for Life!”

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T-Mobile takes “UnCarrier” Smartphone Data worldwide for free

t-mobile worldwide dataI love watching companies actually compete.

T-Mobile is our little-engine-that-could fourth place carrier, and over the last year they almost got bought by AT&T. When that fell through we’ve seen a plucky little organization work to really shake up how we buy smartphones and service plans. It’s been fun, and their attempts at market disruption have actually forced the bigger players to adapt.

Now T-Mobile is unleashing an incredible upgrade to their data plans: free data in over 100 countries.

If you travel a lot, this has probably affected you. I’ve had several friends return from trips abroad with either huge cellphone bills or recounting frustrating stories of trying to use local carriers short term. T-Mo’s new offerings aim to end-run around that problem.

Without doing anything, without signing a new agreement or getting a new fee tacked on to your bill, T-Mo customers on a Simple Choice plan now have free unlimited data around the world. There’s a list of participating countries on the T-Mo site, so I’m not going to write it out here. If you were planning on backpacking across Europe though, chances are pretty good you’ll be covered.

Now what KIND of data you can expect is still somewhat up for grabs. I’d be surprised if T-Mo has worked out licensing agreements in each of these countries to provide super-fast 3G and 4G unlimited connections. In many areas you’ll probably be rocking EDGE, but that’s still plenty of bandwidth to get your email, look up map info, and check your socials.

Along side free data, free texting is included, and calls are 20 cents a minute, which isn’t too shabby. All in all, it’s a pretty nice value add.

Check out their bold announcement video below:

(via T-Mobile)

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FreedomPop offers up totally free Smartphone Plan

freedompop free smartphone plan screenshot somegadgetguyOk. This is a pretty significant shot across most of the other MVNOs out there.

FreedomPop has been working for a while now to popularize entry-level free data. You buy a relatively inexpensive portable modem, and you get a small pool of data every month for free. Need more data, pay extra. They’re bringing that same business model to smartphones starting today.

The phone isn’t the most exciting handset ever, the HTC EVO Design 4G, but it does come with actual 4G in the form of Sprint’s aged (but still pretty quick) WiMAX network. The good news is it’ll only run you $100 to pick it up. For that price it’s REALLY decent hardware.

FreedomPop has built all of its services off of that network, so I would image that if you’re not in good WiMAX coverage that you’ll fall back on to Sprint’s improving 3G infrastructure. As Sprint has been going through their “Network Vision” clean up, I personally saw a decent little bump to network speed and reception in LA.

The FreedomPop plan starts you off with 200 voice minutes, 500 texts, and 500MB of data per month. Stepping up to unlimited voice and texts adds $11 a month. You can bump up data as well, 2GB for $20, 4GB for $35, even 10GB for $90.

We’re starting to see some pretty cut throat competition from the smaller virtual carriers, with Republic Wireless recently scoring the Moto X, but no one has had the guts to offer up a free plan yet. Now if only we could start talking about some LTE FreedomPop…

(via FreedomPop)

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