13 1 / 2011
Soooo It begins
With the lax rules passed by the FCC on Net Neutrality (which I know people do get confused, we want net neutrality, just pissed that the laws allow wiggle-room for the providers to fuck with our access especially for mobile phone internet access).
Letter from Savetheinternet.com
When we access the Internet on our phones — as more of us do every day — we expect to be able to go wherever we want, whenever we want.
But a terrible new service plan from MetroPCS — the fifth-largest U.S. mobile phone carrier — is the latest phone industry attack on Net Neutrality. The company is limiting users’ ability to access certain websites and services, unless they pay extra for the privilege.
Free Press just alerted the FCC to this blatant violation of Net Neutrality.1
Here’s what MetroPCS’s new pricing scheme looks like:
- Customers purchasing the most expensive plan will have to pay extra to access Netflix, Skype or any website using “advanced HTML” on their phones.
- Those with the cheapest data option won’t be able to access any of these online services, except for YouTube — despite its similar data usage.
It gets worse. MetroPCS’s plans disproportionately affect people of color and urban communities, whom the company recognizes as a major portion of its customer base, and who largely depend on mobile phones to access the Internet.2
There is a way that we can stop MetroPCS’s discriminatory practices. Last month, the FCC adopted weak rules that leave mobile Internet users virtually unprotected from these types of abuses, with two big exceptions: They prohibit the blocking of websites and competing video and voice communication applications on mobile phones. Yet that’s exactly what MetroPCS is doing.
The FCC must now take action to protect the public and enforce these new rules. If the agency does nothing, we could see a domino effect in which larger carriers like AT&T and Verizon introduce their own forms of mobile blocking and discrimination. We can’t let that happen.
The FCC must take MetroPCS to task before other carriers follow suit.
Mobile Internet users should have the freedom to access any sites or services they want. The FCC must respond to our concerns3, protect our online rights and investigate MetroPCS now.
Thanks,
Josh Levy
Online Campaign Manager
Free Press
http://act2.freepress.net/sign/metropcs_violation/?akid=2220.9832662.oJzczO&rd=1&t=2 sign the petition to alert the FCC of MetroPCS’ violations of the new net neutrality rules!
FUCK THESE PEOPLE, AND THEIR WEALTH-BASED CASTE SYSTEM! When one of the littler ones is allowed to do this, all the rest will follow, lets hope that the FCC smacks down on this bullshit.. but we already saw how they caved to pressure from the big carriers so who fucking knows…. I always have hope, but understand that 9.5 times out of 10 I won’t get my way
