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Image source: Politico.com)
BY JON REHAGEN
The Department of Justice is investigating major cable companies following complaints
of antitrust violations. WYFF explains why DOJ is getting involved.
“... companies like Comcast and Time Warner are improperly using their clout to hurt online
competitors like Netflix, as well as Hulu, with moves like setting caps that limit the
amount of internet data customers can get each month.”
The Free Press advocacy group tells Ars Technica — overall, data caps are bad for consumers.
“Caps can discriminate against competing online video services, and even without discriminatory
treatment they generally discourage customers' use of services delivered over the Internet."
The DOJ is focusing its investigation on Comcast — a cable company that also offers an online
viewing app called Xfinity. When Comcast users watch video via Xfinity, the usage doesn’t
count toward their monthly data cap.
But as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings pointed out in a Facebook post — a Comcast customer
watching that same video via Netflix would be racking up data usage.
Hastings stated if he watches a show around an hour long through his XBOX on Hulu or Netflix
it takes about a gigabyte of his cap. But if the same show through the Xfinity app wouldn’t
use any at all. “In what way is this neutral?” But Comcast says it has a perfectly good explanation
for why Xfinity doesn’t count toward data usage. As CNNMoney explains, Comcast claims
the app isn’t on the “open internet,” so it doesn’t use data.
“... it runs its Xfinity for Xbox service on its own, private Internet protocol network.
That traffic doesn't count against bandwidth caps because its network is ‘above and beyond
and distinct from’ the bandwidth available to customers via their regular Internet connection.”
Regardless of whether the data caps are fair — an analyst for Fox Business says, cable
companies aren’t breaking any laws.
“... federal courts ruled that even the FCC, which is the closest regulator we have
of cable, has no legal right whatsoever to dictate to cable carriers how they manage
their traffic. That is a private network, its not built by government dollars...”