Pro-Net Neutrality Groups Urge FCC To Draw Lines on Zero Rating
With FCC authority to clamp down on zero rating clearer, it should move forward, net neutrality advocates will tell the agency. Groups including Fight for the Future, the Center for Media Justice and Free Press plan to present complaints allegedly from 100,000 Americans to the FCC Friday before the commissioners' meeting.
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Industry observers said one major after-effect of the decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholding the rules is that the FCC is now free to act on zero rating, ISP privacy and other pending matters (see 1606140023). The groups said now is the time to act on the zero-rating investigation launched last year.
The FCC sent letters to AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon asking about their very different zero-rated offerings (see 1512170030). T-Mobile CEO John Legere was at the FCC Tuesday for meetings, he tweeted, providing no additional details other than that he was on the eighth floor and met with Commissioner Ajit Pai. No ex parte filings have been posted on the meetings. A T-Mobile spokesman didn’t comment.
“Wireless and cable companies have been looking for ways to circumvent the FCC’s net neutrality rules that ensure access to an open internet, and one of the clearest violations are the zero-rating schemes that control the content users can access,” the groups said in a news release Thursday. “Tomorrow, activists will call attention to this latest act of deception by delivering more than 100,000 complaints from Americans calling on the FCC to investigate zero-rating, in a massive, photogenic package outside the FCC’s monthly meeting.”
Despite earlier indications the agency could be close to clamping down on some of the zero-rated offerings (see 1603300032), officials on both sides of the issue said Thursday they would be surprised if the FCC acts soon.
“All of the zero rating plans introduced” are in Chairman Tom Wheeler’s words, “pro-competition and pro-innovation,” emailed Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “More likely the FCC will offer informal signals if there are aspects of offers that raise eyebrows.” Brake questioned whether the Friday “photo op” will make a difference. “As usual, the net neutrality groups are strong on activism and short on substance,” he told us. “Staging some empty-headed photo-op should hopefully do little to sway the FCC from its initial, correct assessment that allowing experimentation with these sorts of pricing models is in the public interest. These groups will always be able use misrepresentation to drive clicks to their campaigns, but are unable to show any harm here.”
A net neutrality advocate also conceded the FCC is unlikely to move soon, though he said the agency is likely to keep asking questions.
Drawing Lines?
Other industry observers expect movement. The FCC is likely to draw clear lines on what's permissible and what isn’t under the net neutrality rules, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “The FCC will examine zero-rating programs on a case-by-case basis,” Calabrese said. “Where content providers pay for priority, or where an ISP favors its own affiliated content over competing web providers, the commission will need to clarify quickly that this violates core principles of net neutrality. For example, while the commission could conceivably decide that T-Mobile’s BingeOn, with its recent modifications, is generally pro-consumer, Verizon’s Go90 is paid prioritization dressed up as zero rating.”
“I wouldn't be surprised to see some movement on this issue later this summer,” said Daniel Lyons, associate professor of law at Boston College Law School. “One interesting aspect of the issue … is the impact that the court's First Amendment analysis will have on the zero-rating debate.” The D.C. Circuit “recognized that efforts to regulate ISPs' own speech raises First Amendment issues,” Lyons said. “This suggests that in the case of Verizon's Go90 offering, Comcast's StreamTV, and other carrier-owned services, the First Amendment could be a stumbling block to a zero-rating ban, despite the fact that zero-rating of a carrier's own content is what most raises concerns about anticompetitive abuse of the practice.”
“It's very likely that the FCC will look now at zero rating to appease the anti-zero rating groups,” said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. “It is still beyond me how someone can get deceived or prevented to use the internet by getting free access.”
“With millions of consumers benefiting each day from free data options, it’s really discouraging to see these groups representing the digital elite put their own slanted views ahead of what’s best for American consumers, particularly those living paycheck to paycheck,” said Allison Remsen, Mobile Future executive director. “The idea that consumers would be better off if they were charged for something that mobile providers want to give them for free is preposterous. The commission must clearly see through this nonsense and allow free data opportunities to continue to evolve and meet consumer demand in today's highly competitive wireless market.”
In another area where industry officials say the D.C. Circuit decision gave the FCC a green light to act -- forthcoming ISP privacy rules -- the Wireline Bureau agreed to give interested parties more time to file replies. Replies were due June 27 and the new due date in July 6, the bureau said. “To allow interested parties to respond to the voluminous record in this proceeding, the Bureau today is extending the reply comment deadline,” said the Wednesday notice.