FCC Republicans try to protect AT&T and Verizon in net neutrality case
With Trump about to take over, FCC pursues controversial zero-rating probe.
Jon Brodkin
The two Republican members of the Federal
Communications Commission criticized the FCC for investigating AT&T
and Verizon in a net neutrality case centering on data cap exemptions.
Any action taken now will be overturned under President Donald Trump,
they promised.
The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau last week said
it reached a preliminary conclusion that AT&T is violating net
neutrality rules by using data cap exemptions (or "zero-rating") to
favor DirecTV video on its mobile network. The FCC also kicked off a
similar examination of Verizon's data cap exemptions. AT&T and
Verizon are exempting their own video services from mobile data caps
while charging other companies for the same zero-rating treatment.
But Republicans, who opposed the net
neutrality rules and will gain the FCC majority from Democrats after the
inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, are trying to protect
AT&T and Verizon from FCC action.
"Chairman [Tom] Wheeler launched yet another
broadside against free data for consumers, notwithstanding the
objections of Republican commissioners," Republican Commissioner Ajit
Pai said Friday.
"This end-run around Congress’s clear instruction is sad—and pointless.
For any unilateral action taken by the Wireless Telecommunications
Bureau at the Chairman’s direction in the next 49 days can quickly be
undone by that same bureau after January 20, 2017."
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, recently urged Wheeler
to "avoid directing its attention and resources in the coming months to
complex, partisan, or otherwise controversial items that the new
Congress and new Administration will have an interest in reviewing."
Other Republicans in Congress said the FCC should focus "only on matters
that require action under the law" and an ongoing spectrum auction.
Wheeler agreed to halt
any controversial rulemakings in his remaining time as chair, but he
did not say that he would stop investigating potential violations of
current rules. The FCC's Republicans want Wheeler to hold off on both
rulemakings and the investigation of AT&T and Verizon.
"In light of the multiple directives we
have received from Congress to avoid directing attention and resources
to complex or controversial matters, the staff of the Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau is inappropriately pressing forward and
escalating its investigation of certain providers’ zero-rated video
services," Republican Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said.
"It would be difficult to come up with a better example of a complex,
controversial policy at the current Commission than this attempt to
intimidate providers in order to shut down popular offerings to
consumers." Any action taken now "can be reviewed and potentially
reversed within weeks," he said.
The Republicans aren't necessarily opposed to
any enforcement action taken in Wheeler's last couple months. The FCC on
Friday also proposed a fine
against NECC Telecom for allegedly charging excessive and unlawful
universal service fees to customers; Pai and O'Rielly haven't publicly
objected to that action.
But whether zero-rating schemes should be
outlawed has been controversial, even among Democrats. The FCC's net
neutrality rules don't ban zero-rating, but they let the commission
decide on a case-by-case basis whether a particular implementation harms
consumers or competitors.
Some small ISPs are worried about data cap exemptions offered by large providers. AT&T's proposed purchase
of Time Warner, the owner of HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros., would help
AT&T expand zero-rating of its own content and further
disadvantage small ISPs, according to the Wireless Internet Service
Providers Association (WISPA).
"AT&T has recently begun to 'zero-rate'
(i.e. exempt from data caps) its DirecTV content, and it has stated its
intention to expand zero-rating to the Time Warner content it would
obtain through this proposed merger," said WISPA,
which represents hundreds of small ISPs. "Allowing any ISP to favor
certain content has a direct, harmful impact on thousands of small,
competitive ISPs that do not own content and lack the ability to
negotiate fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access to content."
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