Product Code Database
Zero-rating is the practice of providing Internet access without financial cost under certain conditions, such as by permitting access to only certain websites or by subsidizing the service with advertising or by exempting certain websites from the data allowance.
Commentators discussing zero-rating present it often in the context of net neutrality. While most sources report that use of zero-rating is contrary to the principle of net neutrality, there are mixed opinions among advocates of net neutrality about the extent to which people can benefit from zero-rating programs while retaining net neutrality protections. Supporters of zero-rating argue that it enables consumers to make choices to access more data and leads to more people using online services, but critics believe zero-rating exploits the poor, creates opportunities for censorship, and disrupts the free market.
Since June 2014, U.S. mobile provider T-Mobile US has offered zero-rated access to participating music streaming services to its mobile internet customers. T-Mobile US launched its plan called “Music Freedom” which would exempt users of T-Mobile US from having to pay premium prices for access to music content; additionally, this content access would not count as part of an individual's cap, which is the limit they can reach before they are charged for data. In November 2015, T-Mobile US expanded zero-rated access to video streaming services.
In January 2016, Verizon joined AT&T by creating its own sponsored data program, FreeBee Data, which "enables content providers to pay a wireless provider to allow its subscribers to engage with or consume a piece of content without it counting against the customers' monthly allotments". Sponsored data on behalf of content providers through AT&T or Verizon covers the costs for the viewers and attracts more consumers. Some people have characterized this as ISPs having created a toll-free service for online users.
Advocates of net neutrality state that sponsored data "allows well-heeled content providers to pay for placement to the disadvantage of smaller companies that can't afford the same luxury". Verizon's FreeBee Data program which allows its own customers to access certain content, like ESPN and its video streaming service, for free along with any other relevant app access and the data will not count against their monthly caps. In this way, big ISPs discriminate against data and content from those who do not pay to have their content included in the FreeBee or other sponsored programs.
Similarly, mobile network operators are also able to use the underlying classification technology like deep packet inspection to redirect enterprise-related data charges for employees using their private tablets or smartphones to their employer. This has the benefit of Toll-free / zero-rated applications allowing employees to participate in bring your own device (BYOD) programs.
In education, and as a response to the closure of school buildings due to the COVID-19 pandemics, Colombian government has created a learning resources platform for mobile phone ( movil.colombiaaprende) and "published a decree requesting mobile operators to provide zero-rating conditions for access to specific education services and websites (both voice and data). The government reached an agreement with mobile and Internet operators ensuring all inhabitants have access to educational content and guidelines, in particular lower income households, with a cap at about USD 20."
In 2017, a long report underlines that a certain number of emerging countries, or Small Countries, let the zero-rating for a certain number of services, especially for GAFAM ones, others big companies (Yahoo, Twitter), and smaller ones (including music streaming). Those countries, providing zero-rating, are Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. That reports alerts that a certain trio of services, are systematically present in each country: Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.
The United States has not officially made a decision on the regulation of zero-rating providers; instead, adopting a “wait-and-see” approach to the matter. The FCC has therefore elected to examine on a case-by-case basis under a “general conduct rule” that “prohibits unreasonable interference with end users’ ability to select content and content providers’ ability to reach end users”.2015 Open Internet Order, supra note 13, at 5666–69 paras. 151–53. Days before the Trump inauguration, the Obama administration FCC issued a report expressing concerns with T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T and their sponsored data programs. The FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau found issues in wireless broadband services that vertically integrate their own affiliated programming, along with service providers allowing unaffiliated content providers to sponsor data. The report concluded that vertically affiliated broadband providers that zero-rate affiliated content most likely violate the general conduct rule.FCC, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Report: Policy Review of Mobile Broadband Operators’ Sponsored Data Offerings for Zero-Rated Content and Services. Jan. 11, 2017.
In the EU, specific cases such as those of Portugal were under scrutiny by national and EU regulators as of 2017, following the BEREC regulation on net neutrality.
In addition to commercial interests, governments with a cultural agenda may support zero-rating for local content.
Zero-rating has also been accused by its critics as creating a two-tiered Internet. To address the issues with zero-rating, an alternative model has emerged in the concept of 'equal rating' and is being tested in experiments by Mozilla and Orange in Africa. Equal rating prevents prioritization of one type of content and zero-rates all content up to a specified data cap. In a study published by Chatham House, 15 out of 19 countries researched in Latin America had some kind of hybrid or zero-rated product offered. Some countries in the region had a handful of plans to choose from (across all mobile network operators) while others, such as Colombia, offered as many as 30 pre-paid and 34 post-paid plans.
A study of eight countries in the Global South found that zero-rated data plans exist in every country, although there is a great range in the frequency with which they are offered and actually used in each. The study looked at the top three to five carriers by market share in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru and Philippines. Across the 181 plans examined, 13 percent were offering zero-rated services. Another study, covering Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, found Facebook's Free Basics and Wikipedia Zero to be the most commonly zero-rated content.
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