Regulators say AT&T’s free-data offering for DirecTV violates net neutrality rules. But come January, the regulators may be out the door and those rules may be under threat.  Last Thursday, AT&T received a letter from the Federal Communications Commission saying its practice of exempting its own video-streaming service from data-usage caps may violate net-neutrality rules. AT&T has until Nov. 21 to respond, and analysts...  Regulators say AT&T ’s free-data offering for DirecTV violates net neutrality rules. But come January, the regulators may be out the door and those rules may be under threat.  Last Thursday, AT&T received a letter from the Federal Communications Commission saying its practice of exempting its own video-streaming service from data-usage caps may violate net-neutrality rules. AT&T has until Nov. 21 to respond, and analysts say the FCC is likely to issue a final ruling halting the offering over the next couple months.  But the election of Donald Trump last week has thrown the agency’s willingness to uphold such a ruling into the air. That makes AT&T’s position the most visible example of the speculation and uncertainty brewing over Mr. Trump’s stance on net neutrality—the signature issue of the Obama FCC.  Most Republicans strongly oppose the agency’s net-neutrality rules, which reclassified broadband internet service as a utility. And the market is betting that the Trump administration will appoint an FCC chairman who shares that view. Shares of Comcast have climbed 8.2% since Mr. Trump’s victory, while shares of Facebook , Netflix and Amazon.com —internet companies that rely on access to broadband pipes—have fallen 6.8%, 9.7% and 8.8%, respectively.  But Mr. Trump has yet to lay out a clearly defined view of telecom policy. And while he has decried what he perceives as overregulation in some areas of government, he said last month his administration would block AT&T’s proposed deal to buy Time Warner .  “I think he’ll be a pro-business Republican with a populist tinge,” said Paul Gallant, a regulatory analyst at Cowen. “But right now, you don’t know where the populism is going to show up.”  Companies are hoping a Trump administration at least ends some of the uncertainty that have surrounded the rules since they were issued. The current FCC said it would evaluate so-called zero-rating of data on a case-by-case basis to determine whether it complied with the rules. It apparently decided AT&T’s plan to remove data caps for subscribers to its planned $35-a-month internet-TV service crossed a line, but it hasn’t challenged similar offerings at Comcast or Verizon Communications .  Still, even a cooperative Trump FCC might need to formally approve AT&T’s data plan after last week’s letter, a move likely to lead to outcry from internet companies and public interest groups. For telecom companies, the Trump card is still a wild card.
Regulators are questioning AT&T’s compliance with net-neutrality rules, putting it at the center of a brewing battle over telecom policy under President-elect Donald Trump.