Noah Feldman, Columnist

A Bad Ruling for Those Who Want to Throttle AT&T

Century-old laws shouldn't read literally when it comes to today's phones.

August 30, 2016 at 7:15 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Siri, define "unlimited."
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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Ma Bell came back from the grave Monday, saving AT&T from the supervision of the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC had sued the company for intentionally “throttling” the mobile internet for its unlimited data customers when they passed a certain usage. A federal appeals court rejected the suit on the ground that as a common carrier, AT&T is exempt from FTC regulation. The outcome is wrong, the product of a literalist reading of the laws that produces terrible real-world consequences. It should be reversed, by the courts or by Congress.

AT&T’s throttling practice is fairly outrageous. It’s the result of the deal AT&T struck in 2007 to be the sole provider of data services for Apple’s iPhones. As part of that arrangement, AT&T offered an unlimited data plan that many customers adopted -- I know I did.1472580548301