Larry Magid: AT&T Looks At ‘Sponsored Data’ Plan

It’s sort of like how in Africa, where data charges are very high, Facebook actually picks up the data cost in Kenya.

The problem with this is that it’s getting a lot of criticism with supporters of network neutrality, who argue that the AT&T plan gets around that.

Let’s go back to the Netflix example. If Netflix where a part of this deal, and I wanted to create my own start-up streaming-movie service to compete; my customers would have to pay for data, but Netflix customers wouldn’t. That’s where the net neutrality issue lies.

This new data program could catch on with consumers and companies, but it isn’t clear what the government would say because there are rules in effect on preferential treatment.