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AT&T Under Pressure to Drop Extra Charges for Video Calling Services
Published on:
USA based AT&T has defended its plans to charge extra for video-calling via its mobile network, saying that the service is not subject to the country's net neutrality rules which forbid charging extra for specific IP based services.
The company recently said that it would support the FaceTime videocalling service on Apple's iPhones, but only if customers sign up for its Mobile Share data plan, which costs extra.
The mobile network says that net neutrality rules only apply when the company modifies a competitors service, but the mobile network does not offer a video-calling service of its own, so the rules do not apply.
AT&T said that while it is broadening its customers' ability to use the preloaded version of FaceTime it is limiting it in this manner to the newly developed AT&T Mobile Share data plans out of a concern for the impact this expansion may have on the mobile network.
However, three lobbying organisations, Public Knowledge, Free Press and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute have now jointly announced that they will file a formal complaint with the telecoms regulator if AT&T continues with its plans to charge for the service.
S. Derek Turner, research director for Free Press noted that "the FCC's rules are crystal clear: AT&T is not permitted to block voice or video telephony applications that compete with its own services. There is simply nothing in the rules that distinguishes 'preloaded' applications from 'downloaded' applications."
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