Bait and switch: What’s behind AT&T’s stance on FaceTime?

[Commentary] I see two reasons the carrier has picked this fight. The first is to push more consumers over to the Mobile Shared Data plan, and the second is to establish a precedent that will put its Wi-Fi network on the same legal footing as its cellular one, especially when it comes to network neutrality.

Success in the first effort will help AT&T in the near term as it drives people off their grandfathered unlimited plans and tiered plans, while success in the second will give AT&T more wiggle room as it fights the Federal Communications Commission and consumer advocates over network neutrality. If AT&T can set a precedent here that Wi-Fi is just as good as cellular when it comes to offering competing apps, then it could limit apps it doesn’t want on its more constrained cellular network to its Wi-Fi network. That allows it to strongly influence the apps that consumers use on the AT&T cellular network and drives consumer behavior in a more subtle way than huge early-termination fees. AT&T may also use this implication — that Wi-Fi is just as good as cellular — to argue that some of the more stringent rules of wireline network neutrality don’t apply on the AT&T Wi-Fi network.