The Media Access Project, Free Press, Center for Media Justice, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative, and Presente.org have filed a fomal complaint against MetroPCS for violating net neutrality principles as a result of its recent service plan changes for its 4G LTE network.
The interest groups allege that by forcing a 1GB cap for access outside of the sites that MetroPCS deems acceptable for unlimited web access under the new service plans, the carrier is forcing unnecessary distinctions between sites and services.
MetroPCS has issued its own statement on the allegations and the complaint:
“The complaints about our new, pro-consumer, pro-competitive 4G LTE rate plans are erroneous. We continue to offer consumers a full service, unlimited data plan. These new rate plans comply with the FCC’s new rules on open mobile Internet.”
The FCC has stated that it will file a formal response by February 15th. The recent net neutrality rules put in place by the FCC exempt wireless carriers from the rules that were placed upon wired carriers concerning equal access of information, with multiple parties unsatisfied including the FCC, Verizon and Google.
Nobody has filed suit. That would imply some sort of challenge before a judge. We have asked the FCC, which is the federal agency that adopted the rules, to investigate the new MetroPCS service plans.
[…] day later it was reported that these consumer groups have sued MetroPCS over the issue. I’m not sure how far this case will go, but filing legal action is certainly […]
Those new plans suck , and they are obviously not following net neutrality. Unfortunately, the new net neutrality rules Google and Verizon, errr, the FCC recently imposed, allow this.
There is no such thing as net neutrality for wireless carriers any more, under the new rules set by the FCC.
Are Google and Verizon really upset by this? They are the ones who made the rules, so I would think they would be fine with this.
On the positive side, at least it only took two weeks for the supposed net neutrality rules to prove just how terrible they really are.
The Google-Verizon pact is not the law of the land. It’s merely an agreement between Verizon and Google that negotiated the possibility of Chrome OS netbooks to have a free data allocation each month.
Of course Verizon would not want the FCC to have control over their ability to negotiate future, similar pacts. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least Verizon would side with MetroPCS on this one.
The Google Verizon pact is what the FCC eventually used for the groundwork of their net neutrality rules though. So I can’t imagine either Google or Verizon would be upset by what MetroPCS is doing.
Hopefully the FCC sees how terrible the fake net nuetrality rules are and they rewrite them ASAP. I doubt it will happen, but it would be nice.