AT&T boss Randall Stephenson bashed government net neutrality rules that would stop companies from not counting certain streamed content towards customer data usage.
The practice is called “zero-rating.”
Speaking at the Business Insider Ignition conference, Stephenson told Henry Blodget that the net neutrality rule, as it was crafted, is “a bad idea and bad for the industry.”
“We got a really aggressive letter from the Federal Communications Commission about zero-rating — that’s regulating pricing,” said Stephenson.
The FCC wants to see an even playing field on the internet for all content providers with no better treatment for some versus others. It wrote to both AT&T and Verizon about the harm it creates.
Zero-rating concerns rivals of the two wireless companies.
For instance, Netflix or Hulu might be disadvantaged if AT&T institutes a data charge for their content and none for content it owns.
Stephenson hit back, saying such rules were stifling investment. He did concede that regulations around customer and data privacy were important, but added that the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC were weighing in with opposing rules.
“We don’t need two sets of rules,” he added.
Blodget prodded the phone boss on whether consumers were getting a good deal and produced his $5,000-per-year AT&T phone bill and asked why telecoms firms weren’t fighting to give him a cheaper deal if there was so much competition.
Stephenson offered that Blodget could switch to AT&T’s Cricket Wireless plan if he wanted something cheaper.
“There are alternatives…,” said Stephenson.