North American Network Operators Group

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Re: Net Neutrality Legislative Proposal

  • From: Keith Mitchell
  • Date: Wed Jul 12 16:09:34 2006

Joe Greco wrote:

> Don't call it Internet access if it isn't.  This has bothered me for
> years at hotels where I end up using GPRS because their stupid
> "Internet access" system is some sort of web proxy that resets any
> connection over two minutes;

ISTM that GPRS operators are the first and worst offenders when it comes
to violating the principle of net neutrality. Almost always NATed,
usually they present the end-user with a bewildering array of "access
point" service options with different tariffs and filters depending upon
whether you want WAP, MMS, real IP etc etc. Eventually if you dig deep
enough past the single-OS-centric marketing fluff on their website to
get the right fiddly settings you need for raw, clear, maybe even native
IP access, it generally takes at least one further negotiation with a
call center to then get this "non-standard" option enabled :-(

The worrying aspect is the GSM/GPRS operators seem to be rather more
effective at making money from this model than traditional ISPs from a
neutral one, and I am sure this is not lost on the carrier side of the
NN debate...

Keith

http://www.keithmitchell.co.uk