Verizon Wireless wades right back into the net neutrality debate with Fios deal

Verizon is taking a page out of AT&T’s book by zero rating its Fios cable TV service for all Verizon Wireless customers. That means that if you purchase your mobile data plan from Verizon Wireless and your cable TV plan from Fios, you can now use the Fios Mobile app to stream live channels and on-demand shows and not have it count against your monthly data cap. (Verizon Wireless and Fios are separate subsidiaries, but both are owned by Verizon Communications.) This builds on Verizon’s previous decision to zero rate its Go90 mobile app for customers of its own wireless service, which network neutrality advocates see as prioritizing its own products to the detriment of those from competitors and upstarts. (One notable exception is for customers with unlimited mobile data plans. Streaming Fios Mobile content will in fact count toward the unlimited plans’ 22GB a month limit, after which Verizon will throttle speeds. This caveat is not made clear in Verizon’s marketing language, and instead is found only in the App Store release notes.) With new FCC chairman Ajit Pai calling net neutrality a “mistake” and vowing to roll back regulations on telecoms and internet service providers, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile may be given even more freedom to do as they please with traffic on their networks.