Public Interest Groups Press FCC To Act on Zero Rating
A broad collection of public interest groups, led by New America’s Open Technology Institute, urged the FCC to clamp down on zero rating, saying the net neutrality rules are now more than a year old but ISPs “like Comcast, AT&T,…
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Verizon, and T-Mobile are using new ‘zero-rating’ plans to undermine the spirit and the text of the rules,” the group said in a letter Monday. “Zero-rating allows ISPs to exempt certain content from customers’ data caps. As currently offered, these plans enable ISPs to pick winners and losers online or create new tolls for websites and applications.” Zero rating plans are “a serious threat to the Open Internet,” the groups said. “They distort competition, thwart innovation, threaten free speech, and restrict consumer choice -- all harms the rules were meant to prevent.” The plans come in various flavors, the groups said. "Comcast’s plan directly favors its own content over competitors’," the letter said. "Plans from AT&T and Verizon charge application providers a fee in order to be zero-rated. T-Mobile zero-rates select video providers but only those that meet its substantial and sometimes burdensome technical requirements." Consumers Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, Greenpeace, the Greenlining Institute, the Media Alliance, Moveon.org, The Utility Reform Network and the United Church of Christ were among the signers of the letter. The FCC has sought information from the various companies with zero-rated offerings (see 1512170030). “To claim that zero rating is anything other than good for consumers makes zero sense,” said Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future. “New service options that make it easier for consumers to afford access to more content is a good thing. Free mobile data offerings give consumers more than they pay for, which is particularly important for price-sensitive consumers. If the FCC is trying to encourage competition and consumer choice, it will reject efforts to thwart carriers from vying for customers with differentiated new service offerings.” Matthew Berry, chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, tweeted about Netflix (see 1603250050) and the zero-rating letter Monday. “Days after revelation Netflix was secretly engaged in discriminatory throttling, so-called ‘public interest’ groups target ... zero-rating,” he said. “Last few days prove that many self-proclaimed ‘public interest’ organizations are really ‘Netflix interest’ organizations.”