T-Mobile tests net neutrality rules, raises prices on consumers

T-Mobile is getting a lot of attention for its new video plan to allow “unlimited” streaming of selected video services, a move that  consumer advocates say may violate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) new net neutrality rules. To be eligible, streaming services will have to meet technical requirements, which means that companies that don’t have the resources of large companies like Netflix or Hulu will likely be excluded.

This means that some streaming services  won’t be counted toward T-Mobile’s data caps, essentially giving preferential treatment to some video providers over others – exactly the sort of behavior the net neutrality rules were designed to prevent. Stanford law professor Barbara van Schewick put it this way: “Net neutrality doesn’t allow Internet service providers to pick winners and losers, and if we look at T-Mobile’s plan as it is now, it will clearly distort the market for video streaming.”

Experts expect challenges to the T-Mobile plan and the FCC will have to choose whether it will enforce its new rules. An FCC spokeswoman said, “the open Internet order indicated that the Commission would take a case-by-case approach to such plans.”

At the same time that T-Mobile announced its video streaming plan, it also instituted an 18 percent price hike for its data customers, raising rates from $80 to $95 per month.

T-Mobile has a history of violating Federal labor law.

Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board found T-Mobile guilty of nationwide labor law violations against its workers. As Speed Mattersreported at the time: “At issue were illegal corporate nationwide policies that block workers from organizing or even talking to each other about problems at work. Workers throughout the T-Mobile US system were subjected to and effectively silenced by these illegal policies; the judge’s order to rescind them covers 40,000 workers.”

Now, the FCC is faced with option of holding T-Mobile accountable for its actions. How many passes will T-Mobile get?

T-Mobile raises unlimited data price from $80 to $95 per month (Ars Technica, Nov. 11, 2015)

T-Mobile Video Plan Could Test F.C.C.’s New Net Neutrality Rules (New York Times, Nov. 11, 2015)

T-Mobile guilty of illegal corporate policies against US workers (Speed Matters, Mar. 19, 2015)