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These days, most ISPs have some sort of data cap on their service. Some of them keep the data cap so high that you’d almost never hit it. While others keep it pretty low, to charge you overages. Now, the FCC is getting involved.
The Federal Communications Commission chairperson Jessica Rosenworcel is wanting to open a formal Notice of Inquiry into the impact of internet data caps on consumers. This is according to a new FCC document. Which means that it hasn’t yet started the investigation, but it’s only a matter of time.
They are also looking at whether they should “take action” to ensure that the data caps don’t harm competition, or impact access to broadband services.
Rosenworcel wrote in a statement “Internet access is no longer nice-to-have but need-to-have for everyone, everywhere. When we need access to the internet, we aren’t thinking about how much data it takes to complete a task, we just know it needs to get done. It’s time the FCC take a fresh look at how data caps impact consumers and competition.”
The FCC can’t take any action yet
While this all sounds like good news, the FCC can’t actually take any action yet, since it only has four members. There’s two democrats and two republicans on the commission. And the US Senate refused to confirm President Biden’s first nominee, Gigi Sohn. Who then withdrew her name from consideration. The White House then nominated telecom attorney Anna Gomez. It appears that Gomez does have the support of the telecom industry, and a nomination hearing is set for June 22.
You might remember, that during the pandemic, most of the ISPs including Comcast, Spectrum and AT&T, all lifted their data caps. Since we were all at home, all day, everyday, it made sense to lift those data caps. But some, have added them back. If there was no problem during COVID, why is there a problem with data caps now? The answer is most likely, money. But that’s something the FCC will find out during its inquiry.
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