Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – 2 hrs 22 mins ago
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There are a lot of reasons not to be a fan of AT&T's wireless network. Just recently, AT&T tried to argue before the Supreme Court that corporations had the same right to privacy that a person did, and so you couldn't use Freedom of Information requests to view government records of possible corporate wrongdoing. (Taking a page out of Citizens United's corporate personhood playbook, perhaps?)
On a more personal level, for me and thousands of other Android phone users on AT&T's network, the user-hostile anti-features they bake into their phones are annoying. But if the latest reports are true, AT&T might be not just going against their users, but against the concept of Net Neutrality itself.
What is Net Neutrality?
The activist website savetheinternet.com has a video explanation of what Net Neutrality means. In a nutshell, it's the idea that wireless carriers and Internet Service Providers shouldn't be able to privilege one website over another. They can put caps on bandwidth, to keep people from using their service too much, but they can't charge you extra to visit a particular site.
Activists consider it important to write these protections into law, because most people in the United States have very few choices when it comes to wireless or high-speed Internet service. Without formal Net Neutrality laws, activists say, people will be at the mercy of the wireless companies and Internet Service Providers.
So what's AT&T doing that goes against that?
According to the PCMag article, Android phones on AT&T's network -- like the HTC Inspire 4G and the Motorola Atrix 4G -- may be having their maximum upload speeds "capped," or restricted. These phones are supposed to be faster than even the iPhone, but in tests they consistently underperformed the iPhone.
PCMag writer Alex Colon theorized that "This could be a problem specifically with the four devices we've tested ... or a problem that specifically only affects certain parts of New York City." But commenter Joe Wright separately showed in a YouTube video that he's having the same problem ... in or near Bozeman, Montana.
So what does this mean?
It doesn't show that AT&T is privileging one website over another. But it does suggest that something on AT&T's end is keeping Android phones from reaching their full potential on AT&T's network, versus the iPhone. If this is AT&T's doing, it's reminiscent of the Google / Verizon proposal to the FCC, which basically outlined their plan for partitioning up the Internet. In this case it'd be between iPhone users, who are allowed to upload to the 'net at full speed, and Android users, who aren't.
Is AT&T doing this on purpose?
When questioned by the PCMag writers, AT&T's reponse was evasive, and mentioned their plans for making new high-speed uploading devices without confirming or denying any of PCMag's accusations.
Sort of like a "no comment?"
Sort of.
So is this a good time to buy a phone on AT&T's network?
Maybe if it's an iPhone. If it's an Android phone? Probably not. Because whatever the cause of the problem, the Atrix 4G -- their flagship Android phone right now -- isn't performing to specifications. And it's not just because they shipped it with an outdated version of Android (2.2 "Froyo" instead of the latest smartphone version, 2.3 "Gingerbread"), either.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
Contribute content like this. Start here.
There are a lot of reasons not to be a fan of AT&T's wireless network. Just recently, AT&T tried to argue before the Supreme Court that corporations had the same right to privacy that a person did, and so you couldn't use Freedom of Information requests to view government records of possible corporate wrongdoing. (Taking a page out of Citizens United's corporate personhood playbook, perhaps?)
On a more personal level, for me and thousands of other Android phone users on AT&T's network, the user-hostile anti-features they bake into their phones are annoying. But if the latest reports are true, AT&T might be not just going against their users, but against the concept of Net Neutrality itself.
What is Net Neutrality?
The activist website savetheinternet.com has a video explanation of what Net Neutrality means. In a nutshell, it's the idea that wireless carriers and Internet Service Providers shouldn't be able to privilege one website over another. They can put caps on bandwidth, to keep people from using their service too much, but they can't charge you extra to visit a particular site.
Activists consider it important to write these protections into law, because most people in the United States have very few choices when it comes to wireless or high-speed Internet service. Without formal Net Neutrality laws, activists say, people will be at the mercy of the wireless companies and Internet Service Providers.
So what's AT&T doing that goes against that?
According to the PCMag article, Android phones on AT&T's network -- like the HTC Inspire 4G and the Motorola Atrix 4G -- may be having their maximum upload speeds "capped," or restricted. These phones are supposed to be faster than even the iPhone, but in tests they consistently underperformed the iPhone.
PCMag writer Alex Colon theorized that "This could be a problem specifically with the four devices we've tested ... or a problem that specifically only affects certain parts of New York City." But commenter Joe Wright separately showed in a YouTube video that he's having the same problem ... in or near Bozeman, Montana.
So what does this mean?
It doesn't show that AT&T is privileging one website over another. But it does suggest that something on AT&T's end is keeping Android phones from reaching their full potential on AT&T's network, versus the iPhone. If this is AT&T's doing, it's reminiscent of the Google / Verizon proposal to the FCC, which basically outlined their plan for partitioning up the Internet. In this case it'd be between iPhone users, who are allowed to upload to the 'net at full speed, and Android users, who aren't.
Is AT&T doing this on purpose?
When questioned by the PCMag writers, AT&T's reponse was evasive, and mentioned their plans for making new high-speed uploading devices without confirming or denying any of PCMag's accusations.
Sort of like a "no comment?"
Sort of.
So is this a good time to buy a phone on AT&T's network?
Maybe if it's an iPhone. If it's an Android phone? Probably not. Because whatever the cause of the problem, the Atrix 4G -- their flagship Android phone right now -- isn't performing to specifications. And it's not just because they shipped it with an outdated version of Android (2.2 "Froyo" instead of the latest smartphone version, 2.3 "Gingerbread"), either.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
