Verizon picked a bad time to “throttle” communications use by firefighters fighting the Mendocino Complex fire, says a Bay Area firefighting agency that was assisting with the response to the massive fire.
The Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District says a communications vehicle it dispatched to the Mendocino Complex, the largest wildfire in California’s history, was rendered essentially useless after Verizon reduced data speeds to a fraction of what firefighters needed, reported the Sacramento Bee.
Santa Clara’s complaint was lodged in a legal brief filed Monday as part of a major lawsuit aimed at restoring “net neutrality,” the doctrine that says all internet traffic must be treated equally.
The FCC says net neutrality stifles innovation. But 22 state attorneys general, in their court filing Monday, said net neutrality prevents internet service providers from implementing practices such as “throttling,” in which data speeds are dramatically reduced. Left to their own devices, internet providers “will abuse their gatekeeper roles in ways that harm consumers and threaten public safety,” the court filing said.
##RVT860
Just another excellent reason we need much more government regulation rather than less! The government should work to protect everyone not just big business and the wealthy.
How is this “RV” related?
Brian — Wildfires affect RVers traveling, or planning to travel, in the area. This was an interesting story about something that the firefighters shouldn’t have had to deal with. But, back to your question: Should we take out everything that doesn’t mention “RV” in it — like the recipes, The RoVing Naturalist, Astronomy for RVers, trivia, jokes, bumper stickers, worth pondering, and miscellaneous polls and articles? More than 95% of our content is RV-related. Anything else is something we feel may be of interest to our readers (incidentally, some of whom don’t even have RVs — yet). Here is a saying at the bottom of one of our blogger’s emails: “Blessed be the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape.” Now there’s something “worth pondering.” —Diane at RVtravel.com
Cell phone throttling has absolutely nothing to do with net neutrality. It’s about what’s in your cell phone contract. For example, Verizon’s unlimited plan can throttle users who are over 22GB in a month, if the tower they on is congested.
I used to have a REAL unlimited plan (NEVER intentionally throttled) with Verizon, but they “switched me” to the plan you mention when I added a line…
You read the terms wrong : they MAY throttle 2-4MBsec down to 60KBsec randomly until 22GB… After that, they WILL throttle you to 60KBsec max ALL the time, REGARDLESS of congestion. You must reboot your phone to restore speeds after the new billing cycle.