The venue changes regarding wireless carriers and Net Neutrality.

Now that the FCC is finished with the Net Neutrality docket for now, it's time to move the case for Internet radio and its potential on mobile devices that use the Internet, whether it be a smartphone, a laptop, a netbook, or a standalone device, etc., to the Federal Trade Commission.  I just posted this to another blog, as comments, but felt they were good enough to repeat here on my own blog about the subject of Internet radio.


The next thing Internet radio needs to do is to start feeding the info about problems with wireless carriers to the Federal Trade Communications. In trying to explain the seriousness of the issue to the FCC today, they simply blew me off saying they could not regulate what wireless companies did.

So I called the FTC, who seems to be more amenable to working with us on matters of Internet radio and some of the matters not settled by the FCC in the matter of net neutrality and wireless carriers.
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Simply give them a call with your issue, they’ll take an abstract of your complaint, then give you a case number. Follow up right away with a snail mail letter to the address they give you giving them the details. Include the case number give you over the phone within the letter you write. Be as detailed as possible with your specific issue or general concern.

Net radio providers need to let them know of the possible loss of listenership, through such methods as bandwidth caps, favoring rival stations and applications, etc.

Listeners also need to complain about bandwidth caps and the high and outright in some cases exhorbitant prices being charged for very little bandwidth. Should you notice favoring of one app or service over another that is also good cause to file complaints with the FTC.

For any Internet radio service to grow and flourish, the wireless companies must be brought to the realization they could kill off the golden goose before it even hatches. If they continue with capping how much bandwidth users can use, and favor one app or station over another, they are going to need to be held accountable for what they do.

So please complain to the FTC with at the start a general complaint, the more they hear from the Internet radio community on these and other Net Neutrality issues, the sooner they will act. Their website with the phone number to call, it’s toll-free, is at http://www.ftc.gov/ and the ‘Contact Us’ link is at the bottom of the main page.