Giving the Behemoths a Leg Up on the Little Guy
What&#x27;s stunning to me is seeing Ajit Pai and conservative interest groups citing the FCC&#x27;s investigation into ISPs subsidizing certain types of data (a.k.a. zero-rating) as an innovation that burdensome regulation was inhibiting.<p>There&#x27;s plenty of room for debate on what constitutes predatory pricing. But I think it&#x27;s clear that when you drop the price for a product to <i>zero</i>, there&#x27;s no longer an argument that you are attempting to fairly compete in that market. The only rational reason is to drive your competitors out of business.<p>Pai isn&#x27;t interested in a competitive market; he&#x27;s told us that much explicitly. He&#x27;s interested in a market where the powerful have a free hand to consolidate that power into full-on monopoly. And he&#x27;s right, consumers will see certain benefits -- like zero-rating -- while that consolidation is occurring. But then, afterwards, we&#x27;ll be stuck relearning the lessons of Standard Oil and Pacific Bell all over again.