AT&T already testing Net Neutrality rules in anticipation

>None of AT&T’s three big content partners for DirecTV Now have made significant pushes into online TV services on their own. Comcast’s CMCSA 2.68% NBCUniversal, Disney’s DIS 0.71% ABC and Twenty-First Century Fox’s FOX 0.60% Fox have preferred instead to partner with AT&T and others. The other major broadcaster, CBS, however, is an exception. CBS CBS 0.84% does have its own Internet TV service, called CBS All Access, and it has not yet signed on with DirecTV Now. CBS declined to comment.

>AT&T and Verizon VZ -0.31% , the two largest wireless carriers, have increasingly been using so-called zero rating as a strategy to bolster the popularity of their own mobile video services over the past year.

>By doing so, the carriers benefit in two ways. Current wireless customers are more likely to use the carriers’ own video services over competitors. Plus, people who sign up for the video services may be more likely to pick the carriers for their wireless service. The FCC, which adopted the net neutrality rules last year to prevent systematic discrimination against any online content, hadn’t objected until the letter it sent to AT&T this month.

>AT&T says zero rating is a benefit to consumers since it allows them to watch more video. And the practice isn’t discriminatory, the company argues, because competing services can get the same treatment if they agree to cover the cost of their customers’ data usage, as AT&T says it does for DirecTV Now. In a reply to the FCC last week, AT&T said it had “faithfully adhered” to the rules and maintained that the FCC’s interpretation was a “radical departure from established law.”

>Fortune reached out to AT&T for comment on Tuesday and will update this story if a reply is received. The FCC is still reviewing AT&T’s response to its letter and had no further comment, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

...

>The FCC and some outside observers have argued that the way AT&T is using zero rating is discriminatory. There is no cash cost to AT&T from zero rating its customers’ video usage, while competitors would have to pony up big bucks to get the same treatment, they say. The cost of matching the zero rating benefit alone could “render infeasible” other services’ attempts to match DirecTV Now’s $35 price point, the FCC noted in its letter.

>The FCC, however, is about to undergo a braintrust transplant–one that is likely to help AT&T in this case. The letter challenging zero rating was written under the administration of FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, who was also a strong proponent of the net neutrality rules.

>But within months, President-elect Donald Trump will appoint his own chairman of the agency. And in addition to his general hostility to government regulation, he has named two ardent opponents of the net neutrality rules to oversee his FCC transition team. Either of the transition leaders, Jeff Eisenach or Mark Jamison, could end up as FCC chairman.

>And that would leave AT&T’s DirecTV Now with its big advantage—and competitors at a big disadvantage.

>>88556
so its unlimited mobile data with IPTV?

gay as fuck
I hope this isn't any indication of the next 4 years
inb4 SOPA redux

>>88629
Theoretically yes you have AT&T.

However, every other time AT&T has ever offered "unlimited" anything, it always turns out later there is an unspoken limit they will charge you for if you go over it.

>>88639
This is definitely an indication of the next four years
Prepare to get arrested, detained, tortured and stripped of your citizenship for torrenting a movie

update:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/12/02/business/ap-us-zero-rating-letters-.html

>>88765

>>88738
I have this plan, you get charged at no point in time. You get throttled at 22gb

You should see the number of shocked Trump voters over at dslreports, shocked they he's doing the thing he said he'd do, that no one paid any attention to because identity politics are apparently more important than the future of our most important technology. Was is worth it?

But on the plus side, the rebound is going to ridiculous in four years.

>>89687
It varies greatly depending on what city you are in.