It looks like the Federal Communications Commission is going to launch an inquiry into data caps and usage-based pricing, which have long been in the ISP broadband offering arsenal and which have drawn criticism from Democrats and streamers like Netflix that root for as much consumer bandwidth as possible.
FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, usually no fan of data caps, said Thursday (June 15) that she was asking her fellow commissioners to approve a notice of inquiry into how broadband providers use data caps.
The way the FCC has framed some of the questions reveals the tenor of the inquiry. Rosenworcel said the FCC wants to “better understand why the use of data caps continues to persist despite increased broadband needs of consumers and providers’ demonstrated technical ability to offer unlimited data plans.”
Internet service providers have argued that usage-based business models help differentiate their services and manage bandwidth demands on capacity.
The caps were generally suspended by ISPs during COVID-19 given the dramatic rise in at-home work and learning. Rosenworcel suggests that the return of such caps after the COVID pandemic could cause harm to consumers and competition and, thus, the access to broadband that is a must-have in today's online society.
In association with the proposed NOI, Rosenworcel said that the commission has opened a new consumer portal (fcc.gov/datacapstories) to collect data on the real-world impact of data caps, both fixed and wireless.
“When we need access to the internet, we aren’t thinking about how much data it takes to complete a task, we just know it needs to get done,” Rosenworcel said. “It’s time the FCC takes a fresh look at how data caps impact consumers and competition.”
Another question Rosenworcel wants answered is what authority the FCC has to regulate data caps.
Back when the FCC’s network-neutrality rules were in force, the general conduct standard was one way data cap foes said the FCC could regulate them. At the time, then-FCC chair Tom Wheeler signaled that usage-based pricing could be an innovative business model, but also indicated the FCC would prevent anticompetitive behavior wherever it concludes it is occurring.
