Here is FSF’s President Randolph May’s reaction to Verizon’s
announcement of its new sponsored data plan called FreeBee:
“With Verizon’s announcement, it looks like variations of
sponsored data and zero-rating plans are blossoming like Spring flowers, with
each offering having different features. This is a good thing for consumers.
This experimentation is the way that business models evolve to meet consumer
demands for services they value, and it is especially important to allow such
experimentation to continue at this stage of the Internet’s development. Of
course, the other aspect of plans like Verizon’s and others is that, by
allowing content providers to pay for some of the overall network costs, end
user consumers are required to pay less. Thus zero-rating and sponsored data
plans are even more beneficial to low-income persons than those further up the
income scale. That’s just one reason it’s odd to see so-called consumer groups
object to these plans. I don’t think there have been that many objections raised
by real live actual consumers.”
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