Newsletter
Over the last few months, it seems as though there has been a resurgence in the Net Neutrality debate. While the actual conversation has moved somewhat away from Net Neutrality in general, the debate has moved more towards what constitutes as breaching Net Neutrality regulations and what does not. This resurgence has largely been due to a number of more recent services that have now come to market from some of the big U.S. carriers.
One of those services which has attracted massive debate in the last few weeks is Binge On from T-Mobile. This is the service which looks to zero rate video content from select video providers. The select part being one of the main concerns for advocates of Net Neutrality. However, when it comes to one of the biggest video service providers, Netflix, it seems they are less concerned about Binge On and its recent criticisms. This month has seen Netflix releasing a number of statements on their current financial stance for Q4, including announcing an expansion of their service to another 130 countries. As is typical of such quarterly announcements, Netflix CFO, David Wells, has been taking part in an earnings call this week and due to transcripts of that call now becoming available, it would seem Binge On became a topic of the conversation.
To cut the chase, Wells made it clear that Netflix not only has no problem with Binge On in general, but actually sees it as a rather good service. Noting that the quality is “very, very good” and it offers consumers a “freedom” from data charges. So much so that it seems Wells hopes other programs like this come to the surface in the future. However, Wells was not so quick to jump to the defense of the latest Net Neutrality concern for Verizon. In Verizon’s case, the carrier only yesterday announced a new service which they have dubbed FreeBee. This is a sponsored data service where companies can pay to zero rate full access to their sites and apps, or just components of those apps. On FreeBee, Wells was far more reluctant to comment, noting that they simply do not know enough about the service yet.