Verizon API To Give Apps 'Turbo' Bandwidth Boost For a Fee

pcmag.com

12 points·Urgo··7 comments

"I think you could anticipate that maybe you'll have a Skype call that starts going bad," Fletcher said. "Wouldn't you like to be able to hit the turbo button and have that come back up to be a good call?"

This is the most blatantly bad product vision I've seen in a while. Network neutrality issues aside, why would I want to have my Skype call go bad and have to hit a button that says "fix it"?

Doesn't this violate the open access rules that went into effect when Google bid this spectrum above a certain value?

This would be a good idea if it wasn't app-specific. Giving users a way to pay more for better service is good; classifying traffic based on application is bad.

Is my understanding right? Verizon is saying that they will kick people off/restrict their bandwidth, when somebody pushes the 'turbo' button?

No no no. You have it all wrong.

Verizon will degrade YOUR bandwidth if you are using services that interfere with their business plan (facebook, twitter, skype: SMS and VoIP).

Now pay extra to "fix" what we degraded for our business sense.

This isn't any different from ISPs wanting to control bandwidth depending on traffic type.

And, even worse, Verizon soon has a financial interest in not improving their network capacity.

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