New FCC Rules Could Make Your Mobile Data Plan a Lot Less Annoying
.By Lily Hay Newman
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On Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced plans to protect net neutrality by reclassifying broadband as a utility under Title II of Communications Act. That's great! Even better: It seems that his plans will extend to mobile Internet as well.
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Lily Hay Newman is a staff writer and the lead blogger for Future Tense.
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This addition means mobile carriers that provide data, like Verizon and AT&T, won't be able to block or throttle websites, apps, or other data services so long as they're legal. And in day to day use, the mobile protections may affect most users even more than the broadband protections.
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In an op-ed for Wired, Wheeler wrote, "These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply-for the first time ever-those bright-line rules to mobile broadband."
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Though we browse the same Internet on mobile devices that we do on desktops, the mobile interface is more limited. For example, the whole point of standalone apps is to get around problems of limited data or screen space by creating optimized versions of sites and services.
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