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T-Mobile Exempts Speed Tests From Usage Caps
T-Mobile recently took some heat on the network neutrality front by declaring they would exempt the biggest music streaming services from their usage caps. In a move that's related but certainly less controversial, the company says they also intend to exempt speed tests from their usage caps, a first for a capped ISP. "The Ookla Speedtest.net application is designed to measure true network speed--not show that a customer has exceeded their high-speed data bucket," the company said in a statement. "Other speed test providers are also whitelisted."

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elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

2 recommendations

elefante72

Member

The opposite tact of AT&T

TMO is playing a 180 of AT&T. AT&T outright demands $$$ from providers to get preferential access. TMO is "whitelisting" first curated music, then curated speed tests. AT&T payola scheme is not subtle. TMO scheme is, but they still chip away at Net Neutrality.

Well they are becoming the "curator". So while they don't take any cash today, I can see a situation where a startup may have to pony up payola to get whitelisted, otherwise they full under the general data bucket, or they are more likely to merge with a whitelisted vendor, and choice is reduced through omission.

Now what if they don't pass that whitelist into MVNO? Now they are disadvantaging MVNO in their bulk data purchases...

While I think this adds to the customer experience today, I can see how this can get out of control over time when the network provider becomes the curator and is indirectly picking winners. This highly distorts the demand curve for whitelisted vendors versus not.

That is certainly not net neutrality, no matter how you slice it.