AT&T's HBO Max Deal Was Never Free

By Ernesto Falcon and Katharine Trendacosta/Electronic Frontier Foundation

When it launched HBO Max, it was discovered that usage of the service would not count against the data caps of AT&T customers, a practice known as "zero-rating." This means that people on limited data plans could watch as much HBO Max content as they wished without incurring overage fees. AT&T just declared that it would stop this practice, citing California's net neutrality law as a reason. No matter what spin the telecom giant offers, this does not mean something "free" was taken away. That deal was never free to begin with.

It should be noted that net neutrality doesn't prevent companies from zero rating in a non-discriminatory way. If AT&T wanted to zero rate all video streaming services, it could. What net neutrality laws prevent is ISPs from using their control over internet access to advantage its own content or charging services for special access to its customer base. In the case of HBO Max and zero rating, since AT&T owns HBO Max, it costs them nothing to zero rate HBO Max. Other services had to pay for the same treatment or be disadvantaged when AT&T customers chose HBO Max to avoid overage fees.

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AT&T's HBO Max Deal Was Never Free

By Ernesto Falcon and Katharine Trendacosta/Electronic Frontier Foundation

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