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I think that the general public's safety and needs outweigh any company's profit.
But, yes, I think that public utilities including police and fire departments should automatically be placed on the highest service levels and charged accordingly.
What this really shows is the problem of depending on commercial contracts to provide vital public interest services. We have the same problem in DoD. No contract can ever cover every eventuality and contract providers know that. So they make a lot of promises and when SHTF they are happy to provide a bill for "extra" services that should have been part of the basic agreement.
In the long run, it's the taxpayer who loses in these situations.
I think that the general public's safety and needs outweigh any company's profit.
But, yes, I think that public utilities including police and fire departments should automatically be placed on the highest service levels and charged accordingly.
Funny.
The cell phone company is well aware that even first responders screw around on their company provided devices. They're heroes, not saints. No firefighter uses 22 GB of data per month saving lives.
I dont understand this either, I was with Tmobile for awhile and I had one of the largest plans they have and for some reason, I was going thru all my data in like 2 weeks, so my interest was basically useless for the other 2 weeks, but when I switched to a competitor, they had unlimited high speed data with NO caps, for less money per month, if one company can offer no limit high speed, they all can without loosing money.
Dial up speed interest is basically useless today anyway, most computers and phones will just time out if a page isnt opened/loaded after so many minutes.
Im really surprised we havent seen somebody like Mark Zuckerberg, suggest free high speed internet for everyone, all the time, it would be well worth it for them, just due to the new customers added, that will likely be spending money online, plus it would be good for govts, since they love to spy on us and track what we do online, this would give them many new people to watch and people would be spending much more time online in general, its a win-win for everyone.
My friend who was volunteer search and rescue years ago got really mad when I told him about this. People’s lives were at stake. They were using the web enabled devices to track the fire and communicate with each other.
Some towns around the country are putting in fiber rings so that all citizens can access the Internet. That doesn’t help with the cellular issue in remote areas. Maybe satellite phones for first responders would be a good investment.
The cell phone company is well aware that even first responders screw around on their company provided devices. They're heroes, not saints. No firefighter uses 22 GB of data per month saving lives.
By the way, these caps are PER LINE.
How do you know? Are you a firefighter? I am personal friends with firefighters and constables and I can tell you that in emergency situations, nonstop communication is essential and cell phone bills and data caps is the last thing on their minds
This was all laid out in the service contract that the public employee signed when choosing the verizon service. There was no communication from the customer to verizon that indicated needs different than the agreement that was signed. It's not up to your cell phone company to follow you and assess your needs proactively in real time, making changes to your plan before you say so.
These plans allow alerts to be set up to warn when you're approaching your cap or throttle threshold.
There is no excuse by the fire department for their negligence to operate within the service levels to which they subscribed.
Funny.
The cell phone company is well aware that even first responders screw around on their company provided devices. They're heroes, not saints. No firefighter uses 22 GB of data per month saving lives.
By the way, these caps are PER LINE.
I'm glad you know so much about how much data emergency responders use, the only problem is that you are wrong:
Quote:
During a fire, the SCCFD deploys a vehicle called OES Incident Support Unit 5262, which uses "5-10 gigabytes of data per day via the Internet using a mobile router and wireless connection" to route resources where they're needed.
"The internet has become an essential tool in providing fire and emergency response, particularly for events like large fires, which require the rapid deployment and organization of thousands of personnel and hundreds of fire engines, aircraft and bulldozers," Bowden wrote.
Bill Murphy, fire captain and public information officer at SCCFD, said firefighters use "what seem like routine internet tools – email and live docs" to communicate resource status and resource commitments among the many different organizations involved in fighting the Mendocino Complex Fire and other large wildfires plaguing California. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...re/1059486002/
They had an unlimited plan, Verizon 'forgot' to tell them when they would throttle and the extent of that throttling, maybe because since NN was repealed they aren't required to
This is my understanding as well. This is normal data capping, which cell providers have been doing since the first cell phone. Just like they had text message caps back in the day; call minutes per month, etc.
Trying to make this about NN is blatant political posturing.
I don't see it as political posturing and I'm not sure why you would think that this is unrelated to net neutrality
Quote:
Verizon's throttling was described in fire department emails beginning June 29 of this year, just weeks after the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules took effect.
Even when net neutrality rules were in place, all major carriers imposed some form of throttling on unlimited plans when customers used more than a certain amount of data. They argued that it was allowed under the rules' exception for "reasonable network management." But while such throttling is generally applied only during times of network congestion, the Santa Clara Fire Department says it was throttled at all times once the device in question went over a 25GB monthly threshold.
FURTHER READING
If FCC gets its way, we’ll lose a lot more than net neutrality
Even if Verizon's throttling didn't technically violate the no-throttling rule, Santa Clara could have complained to the FCC under the now-removed net neutrality system, which allowed Internet users to file complaints about any unjust or unreasonable prices and practices. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's decision to deregulate the broadband industry eliminated that complaint option and also limited consumers' rights to sue Internet providers over unjust or unreasonable behavior. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...alif-wildfire/
I don't see it as political posturing and I'm not sure why you would think that this is unrelated to net neutrality
What don't you get? They exceeded their data caps and were throttled.
Guess what? They can still complain to the FCC. They can still sue Verizon if they did not live up to their contract. What plan has unlimited 4G data for a fixed price? I have never seen one. This has been true since the beginning of cell phones and internet service.
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