FCC Doing Its Job on Zero Rating, Wheeler Says

and see what AT&T’s response is today,” Wheeler said during a news conference after the commissioners' meeting. Wheeler laughed when a reporter asked why the FCC was addressing zero rating this late in the administration. “For the last 10 months, I think, I’ve been standing here and people have been saying to me, ‘Why haven’t you done anything about zero rating?’” he said. “We had an ongoing process. Things percolated, worked their way through and we’re doing our jobs.” AT&T said in the filing it takes “sharp issue” with the Wireless Bureau’s preliminary conclusions. “The Bureau’s most recent letter accepts, as it must, that Data Free TV offers consumers enormous value at low prices,” AT&T said. “More than three million customers have enjoyed the benefits of Data Free TV in the short time since DIRECTV made it available. In the Bureau’s view, the very attractiveness of Data Free TV makes life too hard on DIRECTV’s video rivals when they compete for AT&T mobile customers … even though AT&T’s sponsored data program is available to those rivals at the same low wholesale rate that DIRECTV pays.” The telco-TV provider said the bureau “articulates no cognizable ‘price squeeze’ claim” and shutting down the service “would affirmatively harm consumers.” The company also raised procedural issues, saying the bureau couldn’t act on delegated authority on matters presenting “new or novel questions of law or policy which cannot be resolved under outstanding Commission precedents and guidelines.” Verizon also responded Thursday to a Dec. 1 letter from the bureau on FreeBee Data 360 offering. Verizon said it's “disappointed” by the query. “Verizon first rolled out our FreeBee sponsored data program last January,” Verizon said. “We discussed the program with you then, and have communicated regularly with you and your staff to answer any questions, address any concerns, and to keep you apprised as we gained experience with FreeBee and as the program has evolved. Only now, almost a year after we deployed this innovative offering and during a time of transition to a new Administration, you write to express concern.” FreeBee is “a non-discriminatory program that fully complies with the Commission’s Open Internet rules,” the carrier said. Wheeler was also asked during the news conference if the FCC would extend the net neutrality transparency waiver for small ISPs, which formally expired Thursday (see 1612140065). “We’re trying to take action,” Wheeler said. “There’s an item on the floor that we’re trying to get resolved.”