Net Neutrality Expert: T-Mobile’s Binge On Will Lead Internet Down ‘A Slippery Slope’

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Publish Date:
February 2, 2016
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Forbes
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Summary

Another shot has been fired across the bow in the battle over video streaming and net neutrality. While T-Mobile says its unlimited streaming service Binge On offers value to consumers, a leading expert says it violates net neutrality—and threatens the very future of the Internet itself.

Barbara van Schewick, a professor at Stanford Law School and the director of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, published a white paper outlining the legal issues with Binge On and concluding that it violates net neutrality. The service first debuted in November 2015 and lets T-Mobile customers watch unlimited video streaming without it counting toward their monthly data allowance—so long as they stream from a select set of providers. Binge On now includes 42 different streaming services, including Netflix NFLX -3.23%, HBO Go and Amazon Prime .

At first glance a service like Binge On seems like a huge boon for consumers—who wouldn’t want more video streaming for no extra cost? But the problem is this type of system favors some types of content over others. It can stifle choice for consumers and harm the free speech of smaller, less established video services. “There’s this powerful idea on the Internet that you can build an application and it can reach people all over the world for a low cost,” van Schewick says. “Binge On is effectively killing this very important feature of the Internet.”

On the face of things, Binge On stays within the confines of the Open Internet Order, a set of rules governing net neutrality that the FCC established last year. The order prohibits Internet providers from blocking websites, throttling some applications but not others, or charging extra for “fast lanes.” However, the FCC can still evaluate practices that “harm Internet openness” or “cause the type of harms [the Open Internet] rules are intended to address.” So basically, they’ve got a clause saying that anything that violates the spirit but not the letter of the law can still be prohibited. Van Schewick argues that Binge On is just this type of program that goes against Internet freedom. “Taken all together, it is likely that Binge On violates the general conduct rule and is therefore illegal.”

Internet service providers just shouldn’t be in the business of regulating what people choose to consume through their service, van Schewick says, just like an electricity provider doesn’t decide what you use your electricity for in your home.

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