All three ratings agencies issued statements on Tuesday that expressed a commitment to reforming their ratings practices.
A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Bill Burton, said the proposed inquiry was inspired by a planned European Commission investigation into credit ratings practices in Europe.
"We think there is a critical mass building against the M.P.A.A. on the Web that will hopefully result in major changes to its ratings practices," said Susan Linn, the advocacy group's director.
A June 2007 law gave the SEC authority to regulate the agencies, and it then did a 10-month study which found "significant weaknesses in ratings practices".
Not only that, but these zero-rating practices sound innocuous but are basically paid prioritization lite.
The usual "innovative services," none of which are ever described except some zero-rating practices that were never prohibited (though still a bad idea).
Those are some basic rules, such as equal treatment of internet traffic, a case-by-case assessment of zero-rating practices and more.
Just recently the Commission issued a non-binding and rather tame report on zero-rating practices, suggesting AT&T was possibly violating the Net Neutrality General Conduct Rule, but that T-Mobile and Verizon were fine.
Spiking the investigation into zero-rating practices by telecoms is the most serious about-face, but it's worth noting the other items going down the memory hole, unannounced, on a Friday afternoon.
The present article identifies nine design features of ZRA, three characteristics of customer groups targeted by such offers and three background characteristics of the markets for Internet access services and applications which are of special importance in decisions concerning the need to regulate (to abstain from regulating) zero-rating practices of mobile network operators.
