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Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

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Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#21

Post by SwellJoe »

delinka wrote: post #16

I'm on the fence on this one because it doesn't prevent going up on all data plans. Which will just increase Verizon's revenue and probably not cost them much. However, I'm not advocating price controls. But I know how to solve this. Someone needs to become the defacto wireless network that focuses on the network (reliability, bandwidth) and doesn't deal with consumers. Instead they resell to companies who deal with…

Has a Kickstarter campaign ever raised $4 billion? Because I suspect that's what it would take to begin building a network from scratch.

There are resellers that focus on data, however...Clear is one. They aren't great (they share the Sprint Network, which is very bad in some places, and fair to middling in most), and they reportedly throttle some high usage customers (I've not run into this, though the times when I've needed a lot of data, Clear couldn't provide it anyway, even without throttling), but they don't regulate what you run on the network. All my devices, including phone, connect through it when I'm on the road.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#22

Post by JoeAltmaier »

RexRollman wrote: post #20

Charging for tethering is stupid anyway, as people are just using the bandwidth they are paying for. The only thing I detest more is that AT&T forces me to pay for text messages that I didn't even want.

Agreed. So is Apple's charging for media feeds on an iPhone that I read over my own bandwidth, on my own device, from a 3rd party I have a private relationship with. Yet that stands somehow.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#23

Post by Steko »

gojomo wrote: post #13

This is the sort of price/service regulation that superficially appears beneficial to consumers... but might not be pro-consumer in its total effects. In particular, it could mean customers who would never use tethering wind up paying incrementally more, because all plans now include that capability, and Verizon still has sufficient pricing power make up the loss from tethering fees with other incremental fee increas…

Data prices are already set where Verizon anticipates them maximizing profit so raising them isn't going to "make up" for the money they are now out because they can't rip off a tiny minority of their customers anymore.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#24

Post by kyrra »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #22
RexRollman wrote: post #20

Charging for tethering is stupid anyway, as people are just using the bandwidth they are paying for. The only thing I detest more is that AT&T forces me to pay for text messages that I didn't even want.

Agreed. So is Apple's charging for media feeds on an iPhone that I read over my own bandwidth, on my own device, from a 3rd party I have a private relationship with. Yet that stands somehow.

What feeds are you talking about?

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#25

Post by [deleted] »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #22
RexRollman wrote: post #20

Charging for tethering is stupid anyway, as people are just using the bandwidth they are paying for. The only thing I detest more is that AT&T forces me to pay for text messages that I didn't even want.

Agreed. So is Apple's charging for media feeds on an iPhone that I read over my own bandwidth, on my own device, from a 3rd party I have a private relationship with. Yet that stands somehow.

[deleted]

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#26

Post by gojomo »

drewcrawford wrote: post #19
gojomo wrote: post #13

This is the sort of price/service regulation that superficially appears beneficial to consumers... but might not be pro-consumer in its total effects. In particular, it could mean customers who would never use tethering wind up paying incrementally more, because all plans now include that capability, and Verizon still has sufficient pricing power make up the loss from tethering fees with other incremental fee increas…

This analysis holds up to "unlimited" plans where "tethering" is really a (poor) proxy for "using a lot of data." But if you have usage-based pricing (which Verizon does), it doesn't matter whether that 4GB originates from an iPhone or a MBP. A packet is a packet and it costs the same to route. I suppose you could argue that Verizon incurs some additional support burden for tethering. I question whether or not this s…

Almost no business charges strictly by commodity packet, because it would be disastrous for their long-term future: their margins, their ability to learn from their customers, and their ability to dynamically improve over time.

So any criticism of differentiated pricing based solely on the idea that "a packet is a packet and it costs the same to route" may be astute in the static, technical dimension -- but naive in the ultimately more-important dynamic economic and business dimensions.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#28

Post by tkahn6 »

This is a no-brainer. As others have pointed out, this is a wholly artificial fee. You still have to pay for the data. They're just charging you for how you access the data.

Basically it's extortion.

Here's something that congress should do. Telecom companies are government-granted monopolies. Why not acknowledge that it's already not a free market situation and cap the profit margin that these companies are allowed to operate at (like they're doing with health insurance now)?

It's insane that 5GB bandwidth/month is $50. It's insane that text messages are so expensive. It's insane that the fee to enter into a new 2-year discounted phone contract isn't proportional to the amount of money the company has recouped on the original phone.

Re: Let my Wi-Fi go: FCC rules Verizon can't charge for Wi-Fi tethering

#30

Post by mistercow »

delinka wrote: post #16

I'm on the fence on this one because it doesn't prevent going up on all data plans. Which will just increase Verizon's revenue and probably not cost them much. However, I'm not advocating price controls. But I know how to solve this. Someone needs to become the defacto wireless network that focuses on the network (reliability, bandwidth) and doesn't deal with consumers. Instead they resell to companies who deal with…

>I'm on the fence on this one because it doesn't prevent going up on all data plans.

It doesn't, but simple economics will prevent the price going up on all data plans as much as Verizon was charging for tethering.

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