Network Neutrality and the Court of Public Opinion

            Ask most people a basic question about Internet neutrality and the clear majority support it.  Who likes biased networks, particularly if the bias appears to subordinate the views and interests of you and like-minded people?

            On the other hand, ask people about what they think Netflix and their broadband carriers ought to do should network congestion bogging down bandwidth intensive video streams.  The likely answer: fix it!  Okay, but what kind of fix constitutes “reasonable network management” vs. something akin to prioritization of traffic?  The former universally qualifies for exemption from mandatory neutrality, but the latter triggers disputes.  ISPs can tier service by bit rate delivery speeds and monthly allotment of data.  Should they also have additional market segmentation opportunities to exempt certain traffic from debiting a data plan, so-called zero rating, or to slow down (throttle) entire categories of content, e.g., video streaming?

            The Court of Public Opinion seems clearly in favor of service arrangements described by words like free and unlimited. Of course, in the wireless world, nothing is free and unlimited does not have the common meaning.  Free comes with upselling to a more expensive service tier, e.g., “free” and “unlimited” streaming of a Direct Broadcast Satellite operator’s content. 

            “Unlimited data” has several fine print exceptions.  Throttling typically reduces bit transmission rate to 2G speed incapable of delivering video streams when a subscriber exceeds a ceiling of 20 or more Gigabytes of data delivery.  Also, wireless subscribers have to make do with video streaming that reduces the video line resolution of all streaming content, presumably a trade-off for a much higher monthly data allowance.

            Does the Court of Public Opinion favor zero rating and even tolerance for less video line resolution?  We may soon find out how California broadband consumers react if such options become illegal.  The legislature there enacted legislation that restores the consumer safeguards created in the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order and in several instances reaches further into the Internet marketplace.

            SB-822 current rests on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown.  Does the Governor sign the legislation that deems illegal zero rating, most types of throttling and possibly even the paid peering arrangement that Netflix and Comcast negotiated to resolve a traffic delivery dispute? If he does we will see just how ticked off California broadband consumers get when state law mandates strict neutrality that forecloses “better than best efforts routing” and other market enhancements available at a premium price.

            For my part, I part company with my network neutrality friends, because I believe elected officials should rarely stand in the way of allowing a maturing Internet ecosystem to delivery different tiers of service at varying price points.

           

Freedom to Discriminate: Assessing the Lawfulness and Utility of Biased Broadband Networks

Hello All:

You might have an interest in a deep dive on broadand zero rating: http://www.jetlaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2_Frieden-Article_Final.pdf.

Here's the abstract:

This Article assesses the potential for harm to broadband consumers and competitors when Internet service providers (ISPs) tier service by combining so-called “unlimited usage” with reduced video image resolution and also by not metering usage when subscribers access specific content sources. ISPs previously generated no regulatory concerns when they developed different tiers of service and price points based on content transmission speeds and monthly allotment of data consumption.

However, recent “zero rating” and “unlimited” data offers have triggered questions as to whether ISPs engage in unlawful paid prioritization of certain traffic from specific sources or in traffic degradation by receiving high-definition video content but delivering it with lower line resolution. Additional questions examine whether ISPs engage in detrimental traffic throttling by slowing traffic delivery speeds when subscribers exceed a monthly downloading threshold or when high-volume subscribers seek service in a congested area. This Article further assesses the lawfulness of zero rating and video line-resolution degradation based on the two most recent sets of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that treat ISPs as telecommunications service providers subject to common carrier regulation, as well as rules that now reclassify broadband access as an information service.

This Article concludes that even though ISPs have self-serving, profit-maximizing goals when enhancing or degrading content carriage and display, such practices can have positive spillover effects that enhance consumer welfare without significantly harming competition in the marketplace of ideas and Internet commerce. Acknowledging the potential for harmful arrangements, this Article also recommends that the FCC and other national regulatory authorities implement a speedy and fair complaint resolution process to remedy content carriage disputes.

Who Pays What to Whom in the Internet Ecosystem?

Internet interconnections and compensation arrangements have been based on voluntary terms and conditions after government underwriting stopped. In a commercial context, funds flow on the basis of traffic volume, but also bargaining power (individually, or collectively held).

Last mile ISPs have significant bargaining power in light of their control of access to end users ("eyeballs" to advertisers and content providers alike).  While we could debate about the robustness of competition and last mile broadband options (functional equivalency), few would disagree that most consumers select one and only one last mile wireline provider (where available) for traffic requirements exceeding 10 Gigabytes.  The FCC termed last mile ISPs as "terminating monopolists," appropriate insofar as most consumers are willing to pay for and rely on a single wireline last mile ISP.  Consumers might also subscriber to a wireless broadband carrier, but data caps force conservation and create incentive to retain a wireline option offering unlimited data, or very high caps like Comcast's 1 terabyte monthly cap, plus Wi-Fi tethering.

In the context of platform/double-sided markets model, last mile ISPs have 2 compensation/revenue streams available: 1) last mile broadband subscriptions and 2) payments from upstream CDN and content providers.  While I can see how a credit card company might need to offer free cards, or even pay car users with airline miles and rebates, last mile ISPs have not given up imposing tiered service rates, primarily based on transmission speed (and not data volume like wireless carriers).  Last mile ISPs now want to increase the compensation received from upstream players.

Netflix, Google and other large volume generators of content have been free riders only if one considers content providers/distributors as solely responsible for compensating downstream carriers handling more traffic than generating upstream.  But Netflix is not the sole revenue source: last mile ISPs used to rely primarily (if not exclusively) on their retail subscribers' monthly payments.  The last mile ISPs want to maximize revenues on BOTH sides of their platform and I don't see the same financial constraints like that incurred by credit card companies.

Netflix blinked first, had payer's remorse, but the commercial negotiation process generates winners and losers.  For my part, I don't see how commercially negotiated compensation arrangements trigger network neutrality concerns, unless and until the FCC has jurisdiction to apply Title II, which it now has, plus evidence that the arrangement is discriminatory and/or unreasonable as defined by the FCC.  Bear in mind that the FCC has eschewed requiring tariffs and doesn't apply the prohibition of paid prioritization upstream from the last mile ISP.

So in large part, it seems to me that a maturing Internet ecosystem has diversified from the traditional peering/transiting dichotomy into a variety of hybrid arrangements.  Has such diversification harmed competition and/or consumers?  I'm not sure that it has, even when zero rating has the potential to influence consumers' content choices by injecting a possible cost avoidance factor.

A Nuanced Analysis of Zero Rating

            Zero rating has become the next network neutrality issue in light of two simultaneously occurring marketplace developments: 1) wireless and now wireline carriers impose data caps as a part of their revenue maximization strategy and 2) these very same carriers want to create deal enhancers to improve the value proposition of more expensive service tiers by offering zero rating to specific data streams.  Can carriers get away with a strategy of creating scarcity, rationing broadband capacity, despite its low incremental cost, and upselling subscribers to more generous data plans at higher rates?

            The zero rating issue generates the most controversy when carriers ration and tier broadband access. While they may frame the matter in terms of congestion and network management, in application, zero rating provides a convenient way to tier service at different price points.  Broadband carriers largely have eliminated the prospect of actual congestion and they have every right to recoup substantial infrastructure investment.  However, broadband capacity does not closely match the cost characteristics of other metered, public utility services, such as electricity and water.  Broadband carriers incur insignificant extra costs when increasing a monthly data allotment.  How else can they profitably offer truly unlimited voice and text, particularly a few years ago when subscribers primarily relied on their handsets for these services?

            Unfortunately carriers have resorted to zero rating as a solution to problems they have created for consumers: “unlimited data plans” that punish high volume users with throttling at 2G bit transmission rates; disabling subscriber commands not to auto play commercials; and miserly data rate plans with high financial penalties for overages. 

            Also in the mix is the possibility for artificial congestion manufactured by carriers to justify data caps.  Consider the on again/off again congestion subscribers of both Netflix and Comcast experienced. A remarkable thing happened virtually overnight after Netflix agreed to a preferred co-location/paid peering arrangement.  Congestion evaporated without any new facilities construction and Netflix traffic returned to normal.

            Network neutrality advocates fairly point out that zero rating prioritizes specific traffic streams, by making them more attractive to consumers in light of their lower out of pocket cost.  However, I believe they overstate their case, particularly with the premise that zero rating condemns people with low incomes to perpetual hardship resulting from subsidized access to an inferior, curated sliver of Internet content.

            Zero rating offers access opportunities to individuals who want broadband access, but lack sufficient discretionary income.  A subsidy provides an opportunity to test the waters and to decide whether to change spending priorities.  In developing countries, penetration rates continue to rise to near that of developed countries, because even poor people want and will pay for access.

            Zero rating also provides a new incentive for people with sufficient funds who do not see the value proposition in ascending a steep learning curve toward digital literacy, plus making even a small financial commitment in buying a smartphone and subscribing to a monthly data plan.  Surely these people are not condemned to a lifetime of inferior access, because they might opt to pay for access to the entire Internet cloud.

            Lastly, we should consider the consequences if the FCC—or any regulatory agency—rules against a subsidy arrangement that consumers like.  Does the FCC really want to invoke fairness when doing so prevents consumers from “free” access to certain video streams?

            I provide a deep dive on zero rating in a paper available at:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=102928.