Verizon Now Lets Customers Watch Live Football Matches For Free Via The NFL Mobile App

The biggest wireless carrier in the United States has just announced that users can now view live football games by way of the NFL Mobile app without having to worry about paying any data fees. Verizon Wireless has officially launched zero rate data via the National Football League’s app, which shows live local and nationally broadcasted matches such as Sunday night games and Monday Night football. The Big Red is making the deal available to postpaid subscribers under the wireless carrier’s LTE network. It bears noting though that for downloading and web surfing, they will continue to come out of the customer’s monthly data allowance. On top of all this, Verizon Wireless has also decided to offer the NFL Redzone mobile app, which offers video highlights from every football match, for $2 per month.

Of course, industry leader Verizon Wireless is far from being the only mobile operator in America to start offering zero rated data deals. AT&T, the second biggest wireless carrier in the US, recently debuted zero rated video content from DirecTV’s TV Everywhere mobile apps. Also earlier this year, Sprint allowed its own subscribers to view every live soccer match of the Copa America Centenario tournament through their mobile devices without incurring data charges. Zero rated deals was first popularized by T-Mobile, especially when it launched its Music Freedom feature for streaming audio content, and then later on, the Binge On service for streaming video content. As for Verizon, it also has its FreeBee Data, which lets content providers or other parties to pay for the cost of delivering various types of streaming content and services to mobile users. With regards to the NFL games, the Big Red did not say however whether the NFL is also paying for the cost of streaming live football matches to customers.

Wireless carriers who offer zero rated offers have had to deal with some flak from advocates of net neutrality rules. According to the critics, zero rated services let media companies with big budgets pay for access to mobile subscribers, essentially handing them an unfair advantage over smaller businesses. Net neutrality proponents have asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do something about these zero rated offers, but the agency has only promised to evaluate such services, not punish the wireless carriers offering them.

Still, sports fans, especially those Verizon Wireless customers who like to watch NFL games should be delighted with this latest offer from the Big Red. And if that is a good enough reason for them not to bolt to other carriers, then it is mission accomplished for Verizon. For more Verizon deals, you can start comparing plans and phones from Verizon Wireless at MyRatePlan now.