Verizon's Sponsored Data Plan Shows Markets at Work, Free State Foundation Says

that business models evolve to meet consumer demands for services they value, and it is especially important to allow such experimentation to continue at this stage of the Internet's development,” May said. “Of course, the other aspect of plans like Verizon's and others is that, by allowing content providers to pay for some of the overall network costs, end user consumers are required to pay less. Thus zero-rating and sponsored data plans are even more beneficial to low-income persons than those further up the income scale.” May said it's odd that many “so-called consumer groups” object to zero-rated plans. “I don't think there have been that many objections raised by real live actual consumers,” he said. Mark Jamison, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said sponsored data is nothing new and networks have provided free content delivery for decades. “Denying sponsored data hurts the poor,” he said in a written statement. "Opponents see sponsored data as an exercise of market power. Indeed some developing countries are prohibiting the practice in the name of net neutrality.”