Well, BATS would be a subset of what you're getting (minus AMEX quotes), would it not? NBBO everywhere is NBBO everywhere, BATS included.
Indeed, it has been horribly explained by IB. I am pretty sure they need to follow up with more clarification and additional statements. Even the careful reader is left with confusion. My 2 cents.
The fact that a simple thing like accurate, up to date level 1 quotes has been reduced to this cluster$%^, is proof that we need to throw out current regulators and get people in there who have a clue, and aren't part of the problem.
Funny thing is I don't see Ameritrade, Scott Trade, Etrade, or other brokers/ data providers making any similar data price increase announcements. It seems to me that IB is just using "regulations" as an excuse to hike rates and deflect the blame elsewhere. It's certainly not costing them anywhere close to $4.50/mo to stream NYSE,AMEX, and NASDAQ quotes, and neither is it costing them a "penny per snapshot". Notice how this extra charge is also "non waiveable" based on commissions generated like the old data bundle package? They just wanted to milk more money from folks, and the reg change gave them a good opportunity to do it.
You do not seem to understand the real point here: IB should have charged you a fortune to access all US futures, equities, and options market in near-real-time. Yet they charge you a measly 10 bucks a month. In exchange you get snapshot data that update more or less 4 times a second on average. Would you had to pay out of your own pocket you would pay more than a hundred dollars a month. Now regulators stipulate that a true real-time quote of the NBBO must be accessible to clients, that means IB has to make changes to its infrastructure. Which part are you complaining again about? That instead of 10 dollars you now pay 14.5 or so per month? Again you would pay close to a hundred dollars for real-time subscriptions to all US exchanges in aggregate. The point why they use snapshot data (IB I mean) is that (a) they can better throttle their bandwidth during fast moving markets (great for you to not get a frozen UI and prices that lag by seconds/minutes) , (b) this allowed them to offer you the 10 buck a month deal, true real time data would have meant you had to shell out full price to each and every exchange (also great for you). This constant bickering about IB gets really on my nerve. If people would actually think for a moment then 90% of all complaints about IB would vanish into thin air. Instead support could focus on the real issues. Instead it has to deal with people who just do not see the big picture here.
Do you work for IB? Why are you defending their rates and rate increases? So because they charged just $10 prior, we should be "grateful" and not complain about a 45% price increase and just shut up about it? My point still stands- the other brokerages have not announced price increases, and the changes they made do NOT warrant or justify a 45% increase. I would have rather have them say there were just raising rates, period, instead of hiding it behind "regulatory issues". I use IB for futures streaming data- I can get AMEX, NYSE, and NASDAQ streaming RT data from other brokerages at no additional cost, which I will.
Read again what I wrote, please - I explained in much detail why IB now incurs additional cost that it rightly tries to recover from clients. Other brokers who do not increase prices now because they never bore the cost in the first place, they simply passed on the cost exchanges charge and often added some margin to cover their IT cost to forward the data. Which part are you unwilling to understand? IB has nowhere pretended that the cost will be passed on to any exchange or regulator. And yes you were always allowed to do what you plan to choose: Add your own exchange data as you like and pay full price. Or use a different vendor for market data. Nobody keeps you from that and nobody ever did. Just stop moaning about 4.5 dollars for heaven's sake.
Are you trying to make the case that the price increase is due to the regulation change none of it goes for profit? I complained about IB hiding a price increase behind a regulatory excuse, which you must consider "moaning". I think the more ANNOYING action is taking on the role of SJW for IB as if they need anyone to fight for them, for heaven's sake.