The Biggest Hole in the FCC's New Internet Rules

The new framework described by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, if enacted, would ban throttling, blocking, and paid prioritization by Internet service providers, reclassify broadband as a telecommunications utility, and bring mobile networks into the same rules. The proposed rules would take away every opportunity for Internet providers to play favorites -- except one.

Chairman Wheeler’s rules don’t explicitly block a practice known as zero-rating, in which Internet providers exempt certain types of traffic from counting against data caps. Senior officials at the FCC said that they aren't convinced zero-rating is a bad thing and see less urgency to act on an issue that largely happens overseas. The FCC agrees that zero-rating has the potential for abuse but hasn’t set a line for what practices are acceptable.