Sprint’s WiMAX in Baltimore: FUP again
In Sprint Nextel’s unveiling of its new Xohm WiMax service in Baltimore, it also revealed rules for using its service that one public interest group warns may prevent users from full and unfettered access to the Web. At question is Sprint’s Acceptable Use and Network Management Policy for its high-speed data network. In the usage policy statement, Sprint warns against usage that could “result in an excessive burden of system or network resources.” In those cases, “Xohm may use various tools and techniques designed to limit the bandwidth available for certain bandwidth intensive applications or protocols, such as file sharing,” the company states. Sound familiar? Didn’t Comcast just get dinged by the Federal Communications Commission for deliberately slowing traffic of file-sharing application Bit Torrent?
Comcast is fighting that order in court and says now it won’t target specific applications but will continue to manage its traffic. Sprint’s policy statement is pretty similar to those of other wireless carriers. But after the decision against Comcast last August and the evolution of wireless to more and more Internet services, Sprint’s practice of managing its network traffic is coming under scrutiny. Sprint said by managing traffic of heavy users, it helps the carrier provide better overall service for all its users. But public interest group Free Press said Sprint’s policy could go against the FCC’s broadband policy statement which promotes open Internet access and prevents Internet service providers from intentionally slowing down service for use of certain applications – such as file-sharing applications. Sprint, which has been working to stem customer losses from its existing services, said consumers in Baltimore would be able to try out the service for $10 a day or pay $25 a month for home access or $30 a month for mobile service.
Source: Reuters, Washington Post
Comments(7)
second post!
dont forget that kids are here on bord, so dont be too harsh to them
so in USA most ISPs don’t have a a Fair Usage Policy? Pretty much every ISP in the UK has one, which goes from putting you on a really crap connection with all the other ‘downloaders’ so basically you can’t do anything on your connection, or they lower your speed to a certain MB (not as drastic as the pervious measure i mentioned)
SO I have been really excited about WiMax since I read about it years ago on Wikipedia. But it never occurred to me that private businesses would run it instead of what would seem the place of city governments.
This is 100% for the fail, if it’s run by big corporations.
^ Online Eye Pro