Zero-rating by major ISPs “threatens open Internet,” advocates tell FCC

(credit: Flickr user: Steve Rhodes)

More than 50 advocacy groups today asked the Federal Communications Commission to stop zero-rating systems implemented by Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T­-Mobile USA.

Zero-rating plans, which exempt certain content from monthly data caps, "enable ISPs to pick winners and losers online or create new tolls for websites and applications," said a letter sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "As a result, they present a serious threat to the Open Internet: they distort competition, thwart innovation, threaten free speech, and restrict consumer choice—all harms the rules were meant to prevent."

Letter signers included the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Press, MoveOn.org, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the New America’s Open Technology Institute, and the Rural Broadband Policy Group.

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