AT&T defends unlimited data throttling, says the FTC can't stop it FTC has no jurisdiction because AT&T is a common carrier, company tells judge.
by Jon Brodkin Jan 8 2015 Ars Technica
The Federal Trade Commission cannot prevent AT&T from throttling unlimited data customers because of AT&T's status as a common carrier, the company claimed in a motion to dismiss an FTC lawsuit this week.
Mobile voice is a common carrier service-similar to the utility status of the traditional wireline telephone network-placing it under the Federal Communications Commission's jurisdiction. The FTC's October 2014 lawsuit against AT&T applied to mobile broadband, which is not a common carrier service. However, AT&T claims that mobile voice's common carrier status prevents the FTC from taking action against the cellular data portion of its business.
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