"A Stanford Law professor and net neutrality expert just delivered a damning report to the FCC that claims T-Mobile’s Binge On service is likely illegal.
Barbara van Schewick’s report is extensive, but claims that when you appreciate the components of Binge On collectively, it’s actually a big problem:
Binge On violates key net neutrality principles that the Open Internet rules are designed to protect and creates harms to Internet openness that the general conduct rule is meant to prevent. Taken together, it is likely that Binge On violates the general conduct rule and is therefore illegal.
Specifically, van Schewick writes that T-Mobile’s technical requirements are actually “substantial,” though the company claims otherwise. She says T-Mobile “categorically exclude providers that use the User Datagram Protocol 9UDP), making it impossible for innovative providers such as YouTube to join.”
Similarly, she says smaller providers will have trouble investing the time and resources to make their service available for Binge On.
While van Schewick admits customers prefer zero rated content, she also claims it “limits user choice” and “stifles free expression.” Part of her reasoning for those claims is content; Binge On delivers commercial video, not user-generated or educational videos."
- Date Published:01/29/2016
- Original Publication:The Next Web