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Al Franken says AT&T shouldn't charge for FaceTime

Al Franken says AT&T shouldn't charge for FaceTime

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During an interview On The Verge, Senator Al Franken said AT&T charging customers an additional fee to use FaceTime over its cellular network would be a violation of net neutrality.

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Al Franken FaceTime
Al Franken FaceTime

During an interview with our own Nilay Patel on the latest episode of On The Verge, Senator Al Franken said AT&T charging customers an additional fee to use FaceTime over its cellular network would be a violation of net neutrality. "That's wrong," he quickly replied when told of rumors that claim Ma Bell may place a premium on Apple's video chat technology when iOS 6 launches this fall. "Because that's not the architecture we've had."

Franken was quick to note that he does agree with the principle of network management, suggesting carriers have every right to take action against services that could cause severe network congestion and disruptions. But according to Franken, FaceTime doesn't fall under that category. Hopefully hearing such a clear message directly from Washington will make AT&T reconsider such a plan. But if worse comes to worst, there's always Sprint for you heavy video callers out there. Check out Senator Franken's remarks on the topic below.