Free Data Options Open Opportunities for Low-Income Households

[Commentary] Are free data options a good thing for American consumers? I guess it depends on whether you ask consumers or advocates. For some in Washington D.C.’s rarified, digital, public interest policy elite, the very idea that mobile innovators would offer creative new low-cost or no-cost data service to consumers is a bad thing. New free data choices they say may create (in some unspecified and unproven way) a less “neutral” Internet.

But if you were to ask most Americans, particularly lower-income Americans who increasingly rely on their mobile devices to access the Internet, the answer is a resounding, unequivocal, and emphatic yes. This is just the question the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) posed in their new white paper. And what they found is that the new, innovative free data options a range of wireless operators and content providers are bringing to market could be a game-changer, helping millions of American families struggling to make ends meet more easily access the mobile Internet — and all the benefits and opportunities it offers — without digging into their monthly data plans.As we prepare to enter the next great wireless frontier, users should fully benefit from pro-consumer options, including free data that will continue to fuel our mobile future.