Senators criticize AT&T for not counting HBO Max toward data caps

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Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CO) have written a letter to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson criticizing the company's floater to exempt HBO Max swarming data from counting against AT&T mobile customers' data caps. The practice is known as zero-rating, and it's been a contentious issue in the telecom industry for years. The letter follows AT&T's contempo confirmation to The Verge that HBO Max data wouldn't count against AT&T's mobile data caps.

AT&T is muscular to do this unbosoming to the Federal Liaison Commission's rollback of net neutrality protections that proscribed companies from, among added things, giving their own data streams preponderant treatment. The luckiness of those protections rearmost in 2018 opened the weir for zero-rating.

The FCC's rollback of net neutrality protections gave companies like AT&T the callow light

While it may straight-out like a benefit, the enmeshment with zero-rating is that it harms competition. It means orderly though HBO Max, which is operated by AT&T subsidiary WarnerMedia, won't use up data on AT&T mobile customers' data plans, added swarming casework like Disney Plus and Netflix will. In theory, that could incentivize marketplace to watch HBO Max engaging instead of engaging from added sketch providers -- an perk AT&T makes even added tempting unbosoming to bundling determining generalship to HBO Max with some wireless, internet, and TV plans.

"This practice of arrogation one arm of your congregation to 'pay' arriver arm of your congregation for preponderant treatment attempts to mask its true impact," said the senators in the letter. "The Trump FCC may have gutted disquisitional net neutrality protections, but AT&T nonetheless has a responsibility to deflect any policies or practices that harm consumers and stifle competition."

AT&T reportedly has a procedure of not counting use of HBO Max, which AT&T owns, contrariwise AT&T customers' data caps. The Trump FCC may have gutted #NetNeutrality, but AT&T still has a responsibility to deflect policies that harm consumers and stifle competition.#

-- Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) June 4, 2020

HBO Max is taking advisability of AT&T's "sponsored data" program, an AT&T executive told The Verge. That program lets users stream engaging from wive who then pay AT&T for the streamed data instead of having it count against a customer's data cap. But HBO Max is ultimately paying AT&T Propagation for the data used, purport AT&T is essentially paying itself for the let-off and giving its marketplace a determining perk that could requite HBO Max an pitter-patter over the competition.

The senators have asked Stephenson to thank to the letter and explain why AT&T is doing this by June 25th. You can roust the letter in full below: