http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/...-Comcasts-Latest-Neutrality-End-Around-135736
As we noted last week, Comcast is launching a new $15 live TV service aimed at the company's broadband-only customers that doesn't count against the company's usage caps. For most people, that's the kind of preferential traffic treatment the FCC's new net neutrality rules were designed to prohibit, but Comcast is attempting to skirt over, under and above the rules by claiming its new, creatively-named "Stream TV" streaming service -- is technically a cable service.
"Stream is an IP cable service delivered over our managed network to the home," Comcast insists, implying that it can't possibly have to adhere to net neutrality principles.
"IP-cable is not an 'over-the-top' streaming video service. Stream enables customers to enjoy their cable TV service on mobile devices in the home delivered over the managed cable network, without the need for additional equipment, like a traditional set-top-box," Comcast adds.
It's a lovely tap dance to be sure, but the move may still place Comcast squarely in hot water. The FCC was already apparently keeping a close eye on Comcast's slowly-expanding and entirely arbitrary usage caps, which the company plans to use to protect TV revenues from Internet video. Exempting its own streaming service from those caps is clearly Comcast's next spoke in their planned assault on the likes of Netflix.
The problem, as sites like Motherboard do a good job pointing out, is that much like zero rating, the FCC rules aren't very specific when it comes to what the FCC calls "non-BIAS data services," since the agency didn't want to discourage innovative ideas. Note the notable ambiguous nature of the FCC's rules (pdf) here:quote:"In the 2014 Open Internet NPRM, the Commission tentatively concluded that it should not apply its conduct-based rules to services offered by broadband providers that share capacity with broadband Internet access service over providers’ last-mile facilities, while closely monitoring the development of these services to ensure that broadband providers are not circumventing the open Internet rules. After reviewing the record, we believe the best approach is to adopt this tentative conclusion to permit broadband providers to offer these types of services while continuing to closely monitor their development and use."The rules are similarly non-committal when it comes to the act of zero rating, or letting select content bypass usage caps. In other words, we won't know what the FCC believes constitutes a net neutrality violation until it can actually be bothered to act. But if the agency doesn't act to curtail Comcast's plan to cap everybody's streaming services but its own, there's going to be a lot of people wondering why the agency bothered to craft the rules in the first place.
As we noted last week, Comcast is launching a new $15 live TV service aimed at the company's broadband-only customers that doesn't count against the company's usage caps. For most people, that's the kind of preferential traffic treatment the FCC's new net neutrality rules were designed to prohibit, but Comcast is attempting to skirt over, under and above the rules by claiming its new, creatively-named "Stream TV" streaming service -- is technically a cable service.
"Stream is an IP cable service delivered over our managed network to the home," Comcast insists, implying that it can't possibly have to adhere to net neutrality principles.
"IP-cable is not an 'over-the-top' streaming video service. Stream enables customers to enjoy their cable TV service on mobile devices in the home delivered over the managed cable network, without the need for additional equipment, like a traditional set-top-box," Comcast adds.
It's a lovely tap dance to be sure, but the move may still place Comcast squarely in hot water. The FCC was already apparently keeping a close eye on Comcast's slowly-expanding and entirely arbitrary usage caps, which the company plans to use to protect TV revenues from Internet video. Exempting its own streaming service from those caps is clearly Comcast's next spoke in their planned assault on the likes of Netflix.
The problem, as sites like Motherboard do a good job pointing out, is that much like zero rating, the FCC rules aren't very specific when it comes to what the FCC calls "non-BIAS data services," since the agency didn't want to discourage innovative ideas. Note the notable ambiguous nature of the FCC's rules (pdf) here:quote:"In the 2014 Open Internet NPRM, the Commission tentatively concluded that it should not apply its conduct-based rules to services offered by broadband providers that share capacity with broadband Internet access service over providers’ last-mile facilities, while closely monitoring the development of these services to ensure that broadband providers are not circumventing the open Internet rules. After reviewing the record, we believe the best approach is to adopt this tentative conclusion to permit broadband providers to offer these types of services while continuing to closely monitor their development and use."The rules are similarly non-committal when it comes to the act of zero rating, or letting select content bypass usage caps. In other words, we won't know what the FCC believes constitutes a net neutrality violation until it can actually be bothered to act. But if the agency doesn't act to curtail Comcast's plan to cap everybody's streaming services but its own, there's going to be a lot of people wondering why the agency bothered to craft the rules in the first place.
