Washington’s weird war on “free”

[Commentary] No good deed goes unpunished. Try giving away free stuff to consumers, and Washington gets very suspicious. Especially if it involves Internet content. We’ve talked a lot about the case of “zero rating” or “free data,” the practice of exempting certain content from data allowances on mobile broadband plans. Free data can be thought of like toll-free 800 numbers or even simply as advertising. Early examples are T-Mobile’s Binge On and Verizon’s FreeBee. AT&T and Comcast have similar programs, and Facebook famously offered a mobile plan called Free Basics in India before the government there shut it down.

Unlike India, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not yet prohibited free data in the US. But the agency has been investigating the practice for 10 months, so far without resolution. Still, according to FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, the FCC inquiry itself has led companies to keep free data offerings on the drawing board, not in the marketplace. Not to be outdone, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is threatening to shut down the University of California-Berkeley’s free online educational offerings. In an investigation unrelated to free data, DOJ says Berkeley’s numerous and heterogeneous online courses don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and must be fixed or taken down. DOJ claims the multitude of free course videos don’t all contain proper captioning or sound or video quality.

[Bret Swanson is president of Entropy Economics LLC]