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While net neutrality in the United States has been neutered by the Republican-controlled FCC, the concept of an online level playing field is alive and well in Germany, and T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom (DT) just got called out for a foul ball.
The German telecom giant has lost its legal battle with Germany’s telecom regulator, the Federal Network Agency (Regulator Bundesnetzagentur) over StreamOn, its all-you-can-stream mobile video product that does not count against customer usage allowances. The company introduced the unlimited video streaming service in Germany in 2017, emulating a similar service available in the United States that offers zero rated mobile video content at a reduced video resolution. An appeals court in Münster this week ruled that the German regulator was correct to forbid DT from continuing to offer StreamOn to customers in its present form for two reasons:
- StreamOn was only available to T-Mobile customers inside Germany or those who visited the country, violating Europe’s “roam like at home” rules that require carriers to not restrict or charge more for mobile services or features when traveling between member states of the European Union.
- StreamOn violates German net neutrality rules by delivering only T-Mobile approved, speed-throttled, low resolution video content that won’t count against a customer’s usage cap.
“StreamOn must conform to the ‘roam like at home’ principle and customers must have video streaming available in an unthrottled bandwidth,” said Federal Network Agency president Jochen Homann. “The rule of equal treatment is a cornerstone of European net neutrality regulations. The principle of equal treatment has made the internet a driver of innovation, and the diversity of applications and services benefits all consumers.”
Hohmann
DT immediately contested the regulator’s decision and sued. The case has been drifting through German courts since December 2017, with the most recent ruling in favor of the regulator issued by an appeals court, which declared its ruling to be final.
DT has claimed it finds the regulator’s objections “very puzzling indeed,” claiming StreamOn has been wildly popular in the United States and Germany. Two years ago, it warned that if the courts upheld the regulator’s ruling, it would force the company to stop offering it.
“The Bonn-based regulatory authority is ordering us to also offer StreamOn in other EU countries. It bases this order on the EU Roaming Regulation,” DT said in a statement in 2017. “Fulfilling the order would mean the end of our free service, because we would not be able to offer it cost-effectively in other countries.”
Despite its threat to shutter StreamOn in Germany, the company claimed this week it would continue offering the service for the time being, without increasing prices.
“We are delighted that the court has confirmed our interpretation of the law,” a Federal Network Agency spokesman said after the decision was announced. “We will take quick action to ensure that Telekom adjusts its product accordingly.”
“We expect the [Federal Network Agency] to allow an appropriate amount of time to make the necessary adjustments,” a DT spokesman said. “We are convinced that StreamOn is a legal product and will explore all our legal options.”
Comcast premium subscribers began seeing Cinemax dropped from their lineup this morning, replaced with Comcast’s own premium movie network Hitz.
The FCC has awarded New York’s rural broadband authority over $39 million to bring at least 100/20 Mbps broadband service to 15,442 underserved or unserved rural homes in Upstate New York over the next several years. In conjunction with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s New NY Broadband Program, the funds will be used to continue expansion of internet service until the state is satisfied that any resident that wants internet service can get it.
AT&T is facing a last hour showdown with CBS owned and operated local TV stations in 17 major U.S. cities over a new retransmission consent contract that could mean the third major station blackout for customers of DirecTV, DirecTV Now, and AT&T U-verse. Streaming customers would also lose access to on-demand content. In addition, CBS-owned CW television stations would be dropped from all three AT&T-owned services.
AT&T has already left customers blacked out from nearly 150 local stations owned by Nexstar and several smaller owners — some effectively front groups for Sinclair Broadcasting — with no end in sight. Both sides are taking heat from public officials and members of Congress upset with the loss of one or more local stations, and the latest blackout of CBS stations could result in even greater scrutiny of AT&T and station owners.
