AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds (update: AT&T responds)

AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds (update: AT&T responds): "The news comes less than a week since the FCC's new net neutrality rules officially took effect, but this investigation has been in the works for years now. That's why the Commission is hanging its hat on the 2010 Open Internet Order, a troubled basket of oversight that basically got torn apart by Verizon in court last year. Verizon's near-total legal win could have almost stopped the FCC's investigation in its tracks, but the DC circuit court that heard the case upheld the Order's stance on customer transparency so AT&T's.

Naturally, AT&T and sympathetic commissioners like Ajit Pai contend that the telecom did disclose the slowdowns, and that the FCC just ignored them all. Thing is, senior FCC officials didn't think the disclosures AT&T did make were sufficiently straightforward. As far as they're concerned, AT&T could've talked about its throttling program left, right and center, but it would've been meaningless unless those disclosures made clear what unlimited customers might run into." 'via Blog this'