An Early Network Neutrality Win: Rules Prompt Sprint to Stop Throttling

The Federal Communications Commission’s new network neutrality rules are already having an effect. Sprint, the third-largest US wireless carrier, had been intermittently choking off data speeds for its heaviest wireless Internet users when its network was clogged. But it stopped on June 12, when the government’s new net neutrality rules went into effect.

The rules, unlike prior attempts by the commission to ensure Internet traffic isn’t blocked or slowed, cover wireless networks like Sprint’s for the first time. That raises the stakes for carriers, whose past policies could in theory run afoul of newly vigilant regulators. Sprint said it believes its policy would have been allowed under the rules, but dropped it just in case. The company also had reserved the right to prioritize data traffic depending on a subscriber’s plan. It had never done so, but has now decided the policy isn’t needed.