Jack
If you don't know what net neutrality is, check out my net neutrality post. Verizon has made news this week by announcing that their Go90 video service will not count towards their user's data. This isn't the first time carriers have given certain services a pardon, with T-Mobile boasting free unlimited music streaming to certain services. So what's the problem? It's good for the user, so who cares? Who doesn't want unlimited music streaming or video?
Well, the problem here lies in the very problem with violating net neutrality. It's unfair for other businesses that aren't given this privilege. Imagine that you want to create a new company that streams music to compete with Spotify, but something Spotify has that you won't is that streaming Spotify doesn't affect people's' data. This means you're never going to become as big as Spotify unless you're added to this special "VIP" data list. Not only is this bad for that company, it's bad for the user because it curbs competition. Verizon's choice to have their Go90 app free of data charges is even worse than T-Mobile, because they're the ones directly making a profit and stealing users from the likes of other video streaming platforms. While I don't like T-Mobile's choice to have certain music streaming services not incur data charges, I think it's at least more morally acceptable than what Verizon has just done. At least T-Mobile continues to add various music websites to encourage competition. Verizon, on the other hand, has done this purely for selfish gain.
Sources: TechCrunch, T-Mobile
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