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Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

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Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#52
post #37

Using a SIM card on a recent trip to Mexico, where net neutrality was never a thing, was really interesting. Cell service plans come with separate tariffs for regular data and "social" data, which works only in the walled garden of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Insta, etc., and the "social" data is much cheaper. Even though the positive reinforcement was not as draconian as stuff like this, where they're obviously tr…

Sounds like the mobile companies got Facebook to subsidize consumers' phone bills. Is that good or bad for everyone involved?

As access to competing services gets heterogeneous, it's certainly bad for every potential competitor.

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#53
post #37

Using a SIM card on a recent trip to Mexico, where net neutrality was never a thing, was really interesting. Cell service plans come with separate tariffs for regular data and "social" data, which works only in the walled garden of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Insta, etc., and the "social" data is much cheaper. Even though the positive reinforcement was not as draconian as stuff like this, where they're obviously tr…

Sounds like the mobile companies got Facebook to subsidize consumers' phone bills. Is that good or bad for everyone involved?

Unfortunately we're unlikely to know if it's:

- cheaper social

- more expensive non-social

- combination of those two

I really don't expect it's the first option, unless they're really in a race to the bottom. The third option makes sense even without subsidies - offer something "nice" to typical customers and offset it with other traffic.

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#54
post #37

Using a SIM card on a recent trip to Mexico, where net neutrality was never a thing, was really interesting. Cell service plans come with separate tariffs for regular data and "social" data, which works only in the walled garden of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Insta, etc., and the "social" data is much cheaper. Even though the positive reinforcement was not as draconian as stuff like this, where they're obviously tr…

Is it actually different tariffs or do they offer free “social” data? If they do offer it, that’s not against net neutrality unless they throttle other traffic.

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#55
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the mobile companies got Facebook to subsidize consumers' phone bills. Is that good or bad for everyone involved?

As access to competing services gets heterogeneous, it's certainly bad for every potential competitor.

> As access to competing services gets heterogeneous, it's certainly bad for every potential competitor.

And then for all the customers, as the incumbents having established a moat can become increasingly abusive.

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#56
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Democrats in control of the House, they can pass Net Neutrality and put some pressure on the Senate. Or package in with a spending deal.

Haha, hilarious man. I'm looking forward to two years of total gridlock in the U.S. government. No one is in a mood to compromise on anything at all, least of all a fringe issue like Net Neutrality that motivates, like, fifty people to the polls.

It should actually be interesting to see what happens. The Democrats won the House, but only by about a dozen seats, and some of them are in places like Texas and Montana which they can't possibly expect to hold in two years if all they do is bloviate and obstruct. Meanwhile making deals is Trump's whole shtick. It's theoretically possible that some bipartisanship occurs -- if that's even still a thing.

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#57

Australia India Skype has become awful for us in the last 6 months or so. Does anyone know if this is related?

You can test for it by sending typical files over http (aka download) and then skyping and compare the bandwidth. Or the other way round. Run a few tests over a few days. This won't tell you whether Sprint is behind this, however you will be able to know whether Skype is affected. If yes, you could try to tunnel the Skype traffic over ssh. If ssh traffic is not throttled you should experience better throughputs.

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#59

Not that it's Skype's fault they're getting throttled, but I wish I had an alternative to Skype. I haven't found a service that lets me dial worldwide (particularly USA/Canada) at anywhere near the rates Skype offers.

Do you really still need to dial? Haven’t all the persons you call a computer (smartphone!) with free VoIP capabilities?

Re: Sprint Is Throttling Skype, Study Finds

#60
post #37

Using a SIM card on a recent trip to Mexico, where net neutrality was never a thing, was really interesting. Cell service plans come with separate tariffs for regular data and "social" data, which works only in the walled garden of Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Insta, etc., and the "social" data is much cheaper. Even though the positive reinforcement was not as draconian as stuff like this, where they're obviously tr…

Is it actually different tariffs or do they offer free “social” data? If they do offer it, that’s not against net neutrality unless they throttle other traffic.

Well, it some kind of is, because small/new services cannot compete with large companies anymore.
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