Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
Verizon swears that customers will save if they can make even more money
August 17, 2025
Verizon wants to clarify something. In a letter to the FCC that was also posted on Verizon’s Public Policy blog, Verizon reminded everyone that they are absolutely in favor of an open internet with net neutrality rules.
According to Verizon, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler was incorrect in stating that Verizon’s legal counsel had previously told the FCC that Verizon wanted to restrict broadband access through special commercial terms. Not to worry though as Verizon’s letter states that they want to “set the record straight.”
Essentially, Verizon is admitting that what their legal council told Tom Wheeler and the FCC was exactly on the mark. Verizon wants to proclaim how much they love an open internet and net neutrality just without the net neutrality rules and without the “open” part.
To be fair to Verizon, they aren’t the first company to claim how much they love an open internet without any of the “open” rules in place. We have previously seen this with Comcast. Months ago, top Comcast lobbyist David Cohen responded to President Obama’s net neutrality push by claiming that Comcast supported net neutrality along with the notion of “no blocking, no throttling, increased transparency and no paid prioritization.”
What Cohen didn’t mention was that Comcast has quite the history withthrottling/blocking customersand currently only follows certain net neutrality rules because of the conditions imposed on them during their acquisition of NBC Universal.
Telecom providers want to impose a troll toll. It really is that simple. They want to impose new fees on content providers so that the telecom providers can make additional money and give themselves more power over content. Wireless carriers should not be using their gatekeeper status to erect completely unnecessary tolls while picking winners and losers based on whether the content providers can afford an unnecessary fee.
A world that has AT&T and Verizon charging content providers like Netflix, Spotify and other data-heavy apps will result in higher prices for consumers and pretty much ensure that start-up content providers without significant financial backing will stand literally no shot of innovating in the marketplace. How could they if they can’t pay tooffsettheir users’ data?
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
