Washington Monthly - Another Trump Legacy: Spreading Price Discrimination on the Internet

Daniel Hanley of Open Markets Institute writes in Washington Monthly about the significance of President Trump’s reversal of net neutrality.

If you are one of the 169 million Americans who use AT&T wireless services to access the internet with your tablet or cell phone, you may have noticed something weird going on your July data bill. For subscribers who decided to stream Hamilton on Disney+ with their cellular device instead of re-watching episodes of The Sopranos on HBO Max, your bill might be significantly higher this month.

That’s because, as the telecommunications giant revealed in June, it is now engaging in a new form of discrimination.  If you’re an AT&T customer you can watch unlimited amounts of content on AT&T’s subsidiary, HBO Max, without it counting toward your data cap. But if you want to watch content produced by independent companies, like Netflix and Disney+, that will count toward your data cap, making it more expensive to stream those channels for more than a short time each month. Other telecoms, such as Verizon, have enacted similar pricing policies.

If Hillary Clinton had been elected President, this kind of data discrimination could not occur. Net neutrality, the policy enacted during the Obama administration, but repealed in 2017 under the Trump administration, would have still been enforced.

Net neutrality prohibited internet service providers (ISPs) and other telecommunications companies such as AT&T or Comcast from engaging in discrimination against different kinds of users. It guaranteed that all consumers would be able to access the entire internet at the same speed—and at the same price. It ensured that all content providers trying to reach those consumers over the internet would be able to do so on equal terms.

But after Trump’s appointees at the Federal Commutations Commission (FCC) repealed the policy, it has become nearly impossible to avoid that kind of discrimination. Consumers now have few choices for internet access. In a recent study using FCC data, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that 40 percent of Americans only have one monopoly provider to obtain broadband in their area. Additionally, due to aggressive bundling and a lack of alternative providers, Americans also typically access the internet, watch television, and use their smartphones all from the same provider.

Read the full article on Washington Monthly here.