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Noted online petitioner Change.org will be promoting a petition to stop bandwidth capping this week.
Perhaps best known for hosting an appeal which influenced Bank of America to drop their proposed $5 monthly ATM card fee, Change.org will be presenting the ‘no data capping’ petition on various social media sites in an attempt to gain signatures.
The petition’s letter, directed to AT&T, Comcast, the Federal Communications Commission, and all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who practice data capping, demands that they return to a billing model of unlimited access for a reasonable monthly fee. Telecommunication providers have a responsibility to improve service, not lower it, the authors argue, particularly in light of the fact that taxpayer-funded broadband pipelines already exist, which the providers are not using.
Petition author David K. Smith argues that data caps contradict the Internet’s inherent purpose. In the petition page’s linked article, “Why Data Caps Are Censorship,” he states that as the Internet is exponentially growing, one can always access more information than any data cap could allow, resulting in censorship from “the Big Picture.” The article maintains that exclusion from the total amount of information available results in “leashed” users having an incomplete perspective due to restricted access, and that incomplete, fragmentary information is useless.
“Now is a great time to be signing and sharing this petition,” said Smith. “We have Change.org’s attention, and more and more articles are appearing to protest bandwidth injustices. I feel this is a critical fight for our freedom to information.”
Change.org online help assets suggest that one of the most effective ways to gain signatures is for advocates to place a link to the petition under appropriate news and technical articles, along with a paragraph describing its relevance to the subject discussed.
[Stop the Cap! encourages readers to sign this (and other) petitions which declare the practice of Internet Overcharging unacceptable. Whether it's data caps or throttled speeds, customers deserve an unlimited, unthrottled Internet experience they pay good money to receive. As financial reports show, today's unlimited pricing formula delivers enormous profits to broadband providers, even as their costs to provide the service continue to decline.]
Other stories of interest:
- Associated Press Credits Stop the Cap! for Revealing AT&T’s Secretive End to Data Caps
- A Welcome Change: League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Does Net Neutrality Right
- Sunday Notes
- AT&T Advertises “New” Family Data Plan That Isn’t: Same Overcharging Scheme, New Name
- The Wall Street Journal Quotes Stop the Cap! Founder & Addresses Internet Overcharging Schemes
Finally, I hope this gets all the attention it deserves.
So, how is Change.org promoting this exactly? Are you saying they have plans to do so? As of this moment, I see no mention of it on their homepage.
Hi Bran, I was contacted by Change.org representatives roughly a week ago; they asked me to make some changes to the petition letter and suggested reducing the length of the petition body. On Tuesday, I was emailed by a Senior Organizer at Change.org’s Economic Justice section, saying the he would start promoting the issue on social media and see how it did. Hopefully, the more signatures we can obtain, the more attention the petition will receive. I will update this thread with any new information that I receive. Thanks for your comments.
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Why only 305 signatures? I just signed this.
Wireline ISPs are imposing caps to protect cable TV revenue against Internet sources of video. This is a clear conflict of interest due to being in both the TV and Internet business.
ISPs have a history of providing poor (inaccurate) info on usage, or no meters at all. ISPs should not be able to sell service by data consumption, unless they provide reliable, easily accessed meters that are subject to inspections and regulations related to weights and measures.
Wireline internet providers do not have the spectrum constraints faced by the cell phone companies and have no reasonable reason to limit or bill by data usage.
I think there is a relative dearth of people in the U.S. that are aware, or would even believe, of such mafiosi behavior by the major Cable/Telecos. It’s difficult to get a large movement going unless people are being physically abused by violence or starvation. Even Occupy Wall Street is becoming a fading memory, receiving less and less media every day, yet a handful of people keep going.
I believe, for the most part, that those who are moved to this simple action have either been warned by their provider or ride the line of the cap. Few people will act on behalf of others in this case, just for the sake of keeping these gluttonous companies in check.
I don’t intend to speak for anyone, as we each have our reasons and understandings, but I will express why this matters for at least one person, me.
There is one solution for broadband internet in my neighborhood, Comcast. I have an HD webcam setup at my grandparents’ home to watch my grandmother with Alzheimer’s. That camera streams to my household for hours each day in an effort to ease the burden on my grandfather. He watches over her instead of assisted living and various members of my family watch the cam throughout the day. In addition to this, this house streams everything. That includes Steam, Origin, Xbox Live, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, TED conference talks, occasionally NBC Nightly News, The Daily Show, and random Youtube videos.
Before I knew a cap even existed, I let the camera stream for the majority of the day. Comcast cut my internet off after 3 consecutive months of averaging 1 Terabyte. I explained my situation and they restored me, but now I have to watch my usage like a hawk, yet I still average 100GB over their limit and really hope they don’t oust me; as I will have zero broadband solutions until AT&T reaches my address. With them scurrying to get their usage monitors up and running, I don’t see what good switching to them would do. Comcast does not offer a solution for users like myself, all residential tiers are capped. I pay $62.95/month for 15/3, more if I didn’t own my own modem.