Is "Toll-free" Video Streaming a Net Neutrality Violation, or Just Retail Packaging?

Verizon Communications CTO Tony Melone now has floated the idea of "toll free" data access. "There is room for an 1-800-type of service where certain destinations could offset the cost of the network to get customers to those destinations," he said. AT&T also has talked about the concept.

Basically, the offering would work as toll-free calling now does, where a third party pays for calling charges. In principle, the idea, as applied to video content, would be that a content provider would subsidize the bandwidth charges incurred by an end user, rather than having the consumption count against that user's bandwidth cap.

In principle, that is simply a retail charging mechanism; one of many service providers might embrace. The rub, of course, is that such practices strike some as violations of network neutrality, even if the deals might be offered to all video streaming providers, without exception.

The argument requires a bit of stretching. The proposed "toll free" plans would not necessarily require any packet prioritization at all. The only innovation here is that a video provider could ensure that use of a particular video service did not count against a user's normal bandwidth cap.

Verizon has not said it would offer packet prioritization, only that video suppliers would defray the usage on behalf of their customers.

Comcast has stirred similar concerns by considering a similar plan whereby customers of its video subscription services also could view some of that same content using streaming, without likewise having that usage applied to the customer's bandwidth cap. The issue is whether the methods used to identify such streaming usage are, in and of themselves, a violation of network neutrality, if in fact Comcast does not provide any prioritization on those packets, but only identifies them for charging purposes.

Current network neutrality rules prohibit the use of packet prioritization for consumer broadband access services. But Comcast and Verizon do not seem to be proposing to do so, only to identify packets for purposes of charging.

Nor would network neutrality rules prohibit any lawful charging mechanisms modeled on "toll free" principles, or even advertising-supported principles.