03-01-2018, 11:57 PM
3-1-2018
Sprint CEO says it's OK to charge more for a closed Internet
Sprint's Cool With This Whole Paid Prioritization Thing
While Sprint repeatedly has insisted it's a supporter of net neutrality, it's actions pretty consistently undermine that claim. The company was quick to take advantage of loopholes in net neutrality legislation to throttle its wireless customers gaming, video, and music services unless they were willing to pay Sprint a premium. And this week at the Mobile World Congress telecom conference in Barcelona, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure signaled that the company appears cool with paid prioritization, or the idea of letting select companies pay ISPs to get a speed and performance leg up over competitors.
"I don’t think there’s anything wrong for you to eventually charge a higher price for a faster access to your network," Claure told show attendees. "You have this anyway. In the United States in many roads you drive, you have a faster road and you pay more. There’s nothing wrong with that."
Except there is. As Claure knows, paying an ISP for faster tiers is one thing. As is paying an ISP for prioritized service for things like medical-grade technology (long allowed under net neutrality rules). But critics have long pointed out that other forms of paid prioritization deals could give deep-pocketed companies an unfair advantage in the market. A deal with Disney could, for example, let the company have its traffic delivered more quickly than smaller competitors, giving it a massive leg up in the market.
"We’re still determining what is going to be the price for 5G and how we’re going to charge you, but the economics say, consumers are willing to pay more for a better service and are willing to pay less for a different type of service," said the CEO.
Sprint CEO says it's OK to charge more for a closed Internet
Sprint's Cool With This Whole Paid Prioritization Thing
While Sprint repeatedly has insisted it's a supporter of net neutrality, it's actions pretty consistently undermine that claim. The company was quick to take advantage of loopholes in net neutrality legislation to throttle its wireless customers gaming, video, and music services unless they were willing to pay Sprint a premium. And this week at the Mobile World Congress telecom conference in Barcelona, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure signaled that the company appears cool with paid prioritization, or the idea of letting select companies pay ISPs to get a speed and performance leg up over competitors.
"I don’t think there’s anything wrong for you to eventually charge a higher price for a faster access to your network," Claure told show attendees. "You have this anyway. In the United States in many roads you drive, you have a faster road and you pay more. There’s nothing wrong with that."
Except there is. As Claure knows, paying an ISP for faster tiers is one thing. As is paying an ISP for prioritized service for things like medical-grade technology (long allowed under net neutrality rules). But critics have long pointed out that other forms of paid prioritization deals could give deep-pocketed companies an unfair advantage in the market. A deal with Disney could, for example, let the company have its traffic delivered more quickly than smaller competitors, giving it a massive leg up in the market.
"We’re still determining what is going to be the price for 5G and how we’re going to charge you, but the economics say, consumers are willing to pay more for a better service and are willing to pay less for a different type of service," said the CEO.