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T-Mobile Exempts AT&T's DirecTV Now Service From Data Caps (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: One of the biggest selling points of ATT's DirecTV Now service is that it streams video without counting against data caps on the ATT mobile network. But T-Mobile USA customers will also be able to watch DirecTV Now without using up data, the carrier announced yesterday. DirecTV Now is one of the latest services added to Binge On, which exempts dozens of video services from data caps as long as customers are willing to limit mobile viewing quality to about 480p. T-Mobile also promised to reimburse customers for DirecTV Now for 12 months if they port a phone number from the ATT network to T-Mobile and purchase at least two lines. This offer consists of a $35 monthly bill credit, enough to cover the DirecTV Now promotional price. This is a limited-time offer and cannot be combined with other offers like "Carrier Freedom," which reimburses customers for early termination fees when they switch to T-Mobile. "ATT wants you to think DirecTV is theirs exclusively, but that's a load of crap," Legere said in T-Mobile's press release yesterday. "Both DirecTV Now and the DirecTV apps stream free on T-Mobile with a faster, more advanced network that covers nearly every American. ATT is so distracted by their new businesses and DirecTV that they continue to ignore their 110 million wireless customers. Luckily, the Un-carrier's here to show them how to actually take care of customers!"
them to charge customers.
What does Trump have to do with anything? He's not even a government employee yet.
The problem is the regulation that Congress made without any consideration for their unintended consequences.
Except, you know, Binge on is an optional service. If you don't want it, you can get net neutrality.
Well, there's this story...
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Oh yeah, for people who don't have Sprint.
I guess T-Mobile got mad over losing customers to AT&T for the DirecTV streaming.
AT&T is trying to be Comcast. Out of nowhere AT&T (woke up) and is suddenly trying to do everything Comcast has quietly been working away at for the last 5 to 10 years. I bet AT&T farted sparks when they learned Netflix is on X1 :-)
I also love that this is right below "T&T, Verizon Tell FCC To Back Off On Net Neutrality Complaints". T-Mobile are making a good point here. :)
I only see this as an issue if AT&T paid T-Mobile for favorability on the network, otherwise it's just a free feature of the network. With true net neutrality you would have to be charged the same amount calling calling your service provider's customer service or trying to pay your bill online as you would for using Netflix or some other random service.
Binge on is just as optional to T-Mobile as Internet Explorer is optional in Windows. Nothing is free, and you pay for it whether you use it or not.
If you do not us it, you are just sponsoring the 'free' part for other people that actually do use it. This construct is nothing but a "Net Neutrality Circumvention Device" and if circumvention devices can be illegal in the DMCA, I do not see why they shouldn't be illegal in net neutrality regulations.
Netflix on X1 is Comcast's way of pushing people over the caps so they can make more money. It's a win win for them. Netflix pays Comcast for the interconnect to Comcast's network, and Comcast gets to make even more money off the smucks that use Netflix thru X1. That's why I'm cutting the cord. Greedy fucks.
No, you don't. Binge On is a pretty reasonable compromise - T-Mobile knows that multiple people streaming video using normal "greedy" dynamic video streaming protocols is likely to clog a network if not throttled. Rather than force throttling, they came up with a pretty decent compromise - if you accept throttling, and if the video provider takes steps to reduce the maximum burst rate of the video when streaming to T-Mobile users, then you get video for "free".
You're not "sponsoring the free part" by refusing to use it. How would that work anyway? T-Mobile doesn't have overage charges. You just get cut to EDGE speeds if you use up your monthly data quota.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Binge-On is pretty neutral. The deal is:
- Customer has to accept to throttling
- Video provider needs to take specific steps to stream video and control bandwidth in a way that minimizes the risk of a tower being overloaded.
If both are true, the video is free for the end user. It's not technically "Network neutrality" but it's discriminating on the basis of technology, to protect a network, rather than pitting different companies against one another commercially. I have no problem with that.
Netflix, incidentally, fulfilled the provider side of the equation above, and so has been on Binge-On from the start.
I don't believe any legislation should outlaw systems to protect a network.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Excellent, more bandwidth for me.
Seriously, if you're blowing 1TB in a month you can and should be paying extra for it.
We stream, game, Skype plenty and the most I've done in a month was 500GB.
Except, you know, Binge on is an optional service.
And not available to everybody - you have to have a plan with at least 6GB of data at 4G per month to qualify for it. This is something that T-Mobile hides away in the (very) little print.
I don't believe any legislation should outlaw systems to protect a network.
Effectively it is just rate shaping. Nothing new there. If you accept it, then they can support the stream. If you don't, then your presumably using up from your fixed bucket. The key is that it is open to all data sources and not too complicated to use. Ideally web sites would send smaller images/videos/etc to mobile devices already, but that gets complex fast. In fact, some proxy severs recompress images and such for this purpose. Similarly web sites could send html gziped or similar to save bandwidth.
Either way, the real problem is things like a cell phone carrier only providing unlimited video from one source that they make money from. That needs to be stopped.
I hear liberals are fans of breathing and eating too, maybe you should stop doing both to show the left.
So? I mean, really. It's like $40 a month per line, unlimited data with about 6gb of included tethering. At that point, the binge on portion is moot. You can turn it off. It's a FAAAAAAAAAARRRR better deal that you get than any other carrier. Once they get something similar for tablets, they will be the perfect carrier.