FCC head Ajit Pai: You can thank me for carriers’ new unlimited data plans
But there are good reasons to believe he’s wrong.
For one… T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T were already offering unlimited plans before Pai became head of the FCC. So Verizon has started offering it. Verizons decision likely has more to do with feeling the pressure of competition. It's revenue was in decline and new subscribers were stalling… contrast that with T-Mobile who saw 30% net income AND subscriber growth.
Unlimited plans aren't necessarily a good thing WHEN the FCC allows what's called “zero-rating." A better way to phrase this is "sponsored data". In other words, your data is free for certain services (YouTube, Spotify, whatever). That sounds great until you realize it's doing the exact opposite of what the notion of Net Neutrality was supposed to be. It allows specific content priority access at no cost to the consumer. But who pays for that? Either the carrier or the company wanting it to be free. This limits competition. The NEXT YouTube or Spotify cannot compete when the giant and already established company pays to keep the little guy out.
This douche is a tool.
Damn, a mini me Trump.
God help us, he may decide sell off all the ham bands and 2.5 band. He's already giving Verizon access to the 5Gz band.
I know people loved T-mob for excluding certain media from their data plan… and while awesome for the consumer that's the slippery slope net neutrality was trying to prevent. Why would someone try the NEW media service when they can get the existing big dogs for free? Doesn't matter who's paying for it… we all pay for it when the network gets prioritized for certain companies and not for others.