Mobile Binge On doesn’t violate net neutrality rules, says FCC chairman

Nearly three dozen Republican members of Congress, including the leadership and membership of the House Energy & Commerce Committee and Communications Subcommittee and Small Business Committee, have called on FCC Chairman Tom wheeler to make the small business exemption from the FCC’s enhanced transparency rules under the new Open Internet order permanent. “And so what we’re going to be doing is watching the Binge On product, keeping an eye on it, and to measure it against the general conduct rule”. Net neutrality advocates have been saying for a long time that zero-rating can harm consumers, but Wheeler’s recent statements suggest the FCC is more concerned with appearing “pro-innovation”. When introducing the program, Mr. Legere made it a point to mention that Binge On doesn’t cost service providers a dime.

“Binge On” exempts 24 services including Netflix, HBO, and Hulu from T-Mobile’s high-speed data limits while downgrading quality of video to reduce data usage.

Customers can control whether they want to limit their video quality to those requirements by controlling the Binge On platform, though they are only able to refrain from dipping into their data allotment if the Binge On platform is enabled on their device. I’ve also included his words below if you’re unable to watch the clip. Which Wheeler was making clear is in line with the Open Internet Order by the FCC that they are “pro competition and pro innovation”. “Clearly this meets both of those criteria”. “It is highly innovative and highly competitive”. “I also chuckle at the fact that as we were debating this, everyone was saying, “Oh, this is going to thwart innovation, it’s going to be awful, people are going to come to the FCC to say, “Mother, may I?” before they do anything”.

“I don’t know”, Pai said about whether Binge On complies with the rules. Well that certainly didn’t happen here.

Despite the compliments, however, Wheeler said the FCC will continue to keep an eye on the feature and will review the service under a general-conduct standard.

That rule, he elaborated, says a carrier “should not unreasonably interfere with the access to someone who is trying to get to an edge provider and an edge provider who is trying to get to a consumer”.