• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 7, 2015

Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV, has joined the growing roster of critics of Comcast's new streaming television service.

Last month, Comcast unveiled Stream, a $15-a-month service that lets the company's broadband-only subscribers watch television programs via the Web. Unlike Netflix, Amazon, Hulu or an array of other streaming video services, programs watched via "Stream" won't count against Comcast subscribers' monthly data allotments.

Many Comcast subscribers still have unlimited data, but the company has rolled out tiered billing in test markets. Consumers in those markets can only use 300 GB of data a month before they are charged overages of $10 per 50 GB.

Comcast says that Stream is a "managed service," comparable to cable TV, which isn't subject to net neutrality rules. But critics say that Comcast shouldn't be able to avoid the neutrality rules simply by declaring Stream to be a managed service.

The net neutrality rules prohibit broadband providers from blocking or degrading service and from creating online fast lanes. The regulations also broadly ban Internet service providers from engaging in conduct that interferes with people's ability to access Web content. Zero-rating -- or exempting content from data caps -- could potentially violate that prohibition depending on the circumstances; the FCC has said it intends to take a case-by-case approach to the question.

Lynch suggested in a recent interview that Comcast is skirting the rules with Stream. "We see concerning things happening if you look at cable companies like Comcast now instituting data caps that just happen to be at a level at or below what someone would use if they’re watching TV on the internet -- and at the same time launching their own streaming service that they say doesn’t count against the data cap," Lynch says in an interview with CordCutting.com. "It’s something we’ve been warning Washington about for years... We're Net Neutrality proponents, and want to make sure that rules are implemented so that it really is a level playing field for new players like us."

Comcast's 300 GB monthly data cap would normally enable subscribers to watch around 4.8 hours of TV a day, assuming it is streamed at speeds of 4.5 Mbps, according to Ars Technica. But the average U.S. adult reportedly spends around 5 hours a day watching television -- which means that cord-cutters who subscribe to Comcast could find themselves paying extra fees each month.

Advocacy group Public Knowledge also recently slammed Comcast for exempting Stream from the data caps. Comcast's move "presents a straightforward example of the anticompetitive problems zero-rating can raise, and provides little consumer benefit," senior staff attorney John Bergmayer wrote in a recent blog post.

The Federal Communications Commission hasn't yet weighed in on Comcast's plans.