FCC Should Allow Zero Rating, Say MMTC, ITIF
The FCC shouldn’t hold back zero-rating services, which don’t count toward consumer wireless data limits, those on a Mobile Future panel said on a webinar Friday. Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council CEO Kim Keenan said intervention would be "chilling…
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and devastating to consumer freedom and empowerment." Zero rating is important for connecting low-income and minority communities, she said. "There are a lot of people who are cost challenged and they can't just buy unlimited data.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at first praised zero rating, but has become more skeptical, she said. But the commission should wait and see what happens, intervening on a case-by-case basis if only there are bad actors, Keenan said. Panelists also supported sponsored data, where companies pay for a free-data service. It’s not a net neutrality problem, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. A smaller company could set a smaller budget for their sponsored data campaign, and it’s “not something that’s a huge capital expenditure to participate in,” he said.