"Unlike AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile doesn’t charge companies to allow users access to zero-rated data. But that hasn’t exempted it from controversy. Stanford University law professor Barbara van Schewick argues in a paperpublished in January that this practice still violates the idea of net neutrality by prioritizing entertainment over education (since videos hosted on, say, Netflix are exempted, but those hosted on university websites are not), and by creating hoops for smaller independent providers to jump through in order to be exempted. Some providers, especially those outside the US, might not even know they need to apply to T-Mobile to be included in Binge On. Van Schewick concludes that although zero rating itself isn’t banned by the Open Internet Order, T-Mobile violates the FCC’s general conduct rules and is therefore illegal."
- Date Published:03/01/2016
- Original Publication:Wired