On the same day that a Federal Court struck down the FCC’s right to regulate broadband traffic AT&T has introduced its mini-tower.
The mini-tower is an ingenious little device that boost AT&T’s weak network coverage by translating the cell phone signal and transmitting information over a user’s home network network instead of relying on AT&T’s balky towers. This concept isn’t unique to AT&T (Sprint and Verizon also offer similar services) but astoundingly consumers not only pay for the bandwidth, the cell minutes (which still count against monthly totals) and also $150 for the device.
This new system puts broadband Internet providers, like the cable companies and actually AT&T, in an interesting position. Why should they have to cover the cost of sending AT&T voice signals over their networks? This is not a problem if AT&T is both the consumers cellular and broadband supplier. But since a Federal court struck down the FCC’s right to enforce net neutrality — the principle that broadband suppliers would have to carry all data at the same rate — Comcast or other broadband providers appear to have the right limit bandwidth used by AT&T mini-towers.
Maybe AT&T’s greed in both charging consumers and using their broadband access instead of providing a working cellular network will end up being a good thing… if it forces AT&T to support net neutrality.
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