Free Press today criticized the announcement of Verizon Wireless that it would include all of the video content on its go90 platform in its FreeBee 360 sponsored-data program saying that it would give Verizon content a “leg up” over competitors.  Inclusion in FreeBee 360 means that go90 video streams won’t count toward a subscriber’s data usage

Director-policy Matt Wood said, “Sponsored-data programs raise red flags for open Internet advocates because they seek unprecedented payments from apps and websites while continuing to charge Internet users a hefty monthly price tag for their connections.  The defense offered for FreeBee is that it saves Verizon customers from the excessive data fees that Verizon itself imposes on them in the first place. Verizon also claims that these sponsorships are available to all apps and websites on the same terms. “However, when broadband providers favor their own video platforms with such exemptions, as Verizon and Comcast already do and as AT&T is contemplating, the anti-competitive impacts are especially clear. Verizon’s go90 should compete with other online video options on its own merits. It shouldn’t get a leg up because it’s owned by a giant broadband provider,” Mr. Wood added.

“In addition, these exemptions call into question the practice of charging users so much for their connections and for a monthly ‘bucket’ of data while simultaneously reaching out to wring additional tolls from websites, app makers and other content providers.  The FCC has already begun to look into these data caps and exemptions, and it must act after it gathers all the facts on the latest schemes,” he concluded.

The FCC is currently gathering information regarding the industry’s sponsored-data and zero-rating pricing models, which some public interest advocates have argued violate the FCC’s open Internet rules or open Internet principles. Verizon escaped the initial letters of inquiries that the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Wireline Competition Bureau sent to T-Mobile US, Inc., AT&T, Inc., and Comcast Corp., asking them to brief agency staff about wireless data and fixed streaming video service offerings that exclude certain content from counting against subscribers’ data usage (TRDaily, Dec. 17, 2015), but FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said last month that the FreeBee announcement “obviously” means that Verizon is now part of that staff inquiry (TRDaily, Jan. 28).  Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily