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July 31, 2008

AT and T has told the FCC it will end the contract of any of its customers caught using peer-to-peer (P2P) software on any mobile phones.

Robert Quinn, senior v.p. in charge of federal regulation issues said “AT&T does not use network management tools to block the use of P2P applications by its mobile wireless broadband customers."

"However, AT&T’s Terms of Service for mobile wireless broadband customers prohibit all uses that may cause extreme network capacity issues, and explicitly identify P2P file sharing applications such as the use of a P2P file sharing application that would constitute a material breach of contract for which the user’s service could be terminated.”

In his letter to the FCC, Quinn argued that all major U.S. carriers have similar policies, but that none have been so specific and public about their intentions to terminate customer contracts.

A copy of the letter is posted on the blog at IP Democracy.

Quinn later added that “AT&T has not yet found it necessary to terminate anyone’s service for such a use."

The decision is not without good reasons, Quinn said. The letter goen on to say “today’s P2P file-sharing applications are inappropriate for AT&T’s mobile wireless broadband network, which is optimized to efficiently support high data rates for multiple users that send and receive intermittent or bursty traffic generated by activities such as browsing the Internet and sending email."

Industry analyst firm TechDirt noted that AT&T will have a bigger problem if Apple certifies any P2P application for the iPhone, which is exclusively sold in the United States by AT&T.

"Because P2P file sharing applications typically engage in continuous (rather than bursty) transmissions at high data rates, a small number of users of P2P file sharing applications served by a particular cell site could severely jeopardize the service quality enjoyed by all AT&T customers served by that site.”

The letter continues “moreover, unlike wired broadband networks where the maximum number of potential simultaneous users in a given neighborhood is known in advance, the maximum number of potential mobile wireless broadband users that may simultaneously seek to access a given cell site at any particular time is far less predictable due to the inherently nomadic nature of mobile wireless users.”

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Source: AT&T.