Mr. Donahue
macrumors 6502a
WOW !!!!! Streaming music was big now streaming video for free? Amazing! Love it.
T-Mobile Unveils Doubled Data Plans, Free Video Streaming at Un-Carrier X Event
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Mr. Donahue
macrumors 6502a
I remember when it was! I had it when it first started out and it was cheap and horrible. Now it's priced reasonable and the service is excellent! Love It
They are likely transcoding it to H.264 at lower resolution and bitrate using a mobile optimization proxy (many mobile operators have those). It's unlikely that they would use a different codec since the stream would no longer be compatible with iOS devices.
BTW, what wasn't mentioned in the Macrumors article: If you turn off their compression, the streaming is no longer free (also see this posting). Always a catch.
nutmac
macrumors 603
For individual, $80/month for current Simple Choice North America is probably a better value, which will increase to $95/month for those signing up from Sunday.
I think $15 price increase AND Binge On free video streaming is T-Mobile's attempt to lure people AWAY from unlimited plan. If majority of your excessive data usage is video, and it's from among the supported services, $15/month for each 4GB could save you a lot more money in the long run. If and when Amazon and YouTube are added, I frankly can't justify sticking with unlimited plan (20GB Data Stash should cover the remaining needs, such as downloading apps and podcasts).
Why wait. Just ask T-Mo to pay your contract ETF(s) or to buy out your device financing. Also you have 30 days to try out any phone(s) you buy, finance, or lease from them. Inside that 30 days, if you feel that T-Mobile service is crap where you live, work, or travel to -- just return the phone(s) to T-Mobile and they'll refund everything you've paid, both for cell service and phone(s).
The T-mobile sub-reddit (/r/tmobile) is where to ask questions, get info, or talk to existing customers.
davegregory
macrumors regular
How is this not against net neutrality? The idea that all data is equal. If you're not charging for data for video, then you're saying that all data isn't equal. Maybe it's beneficial for users, but doesn't change the fact that other companies will use this as an example of why they don't need to follow net neutrality.
Instead, I'd think it's because Apple doesn't let you stream (on cellular service) video from iTunes period -- as iOS considers video from iTunes to be a "download". If you try to play a TV show or movie from the video app iOS will literally tell you "This Item Can't Be Downloaded Over a Celluar Nework" -- You must connect to a Wi-Fi network or use iTunes on your computer.
Cellular service dowloads from either the App Store or video from iTunes are capped at 100 meg, I think. Which, I've always thought was retarded.
So my guess is that Apple will have to rethink their policy / iOS software first.
DJTBD
macrumors newbie
How is TMO USA prioritizing data in this deal to go against net neutrality? If anything its the reverse, TMO is telling their customers if they watch video at a lower quality it wont count towards their data but if they choose to watch at a higher quality it will use their data normally. This puts the control with the consumer on how their data is used and not the company TMO is not forcing any sort of specific way for data to be used just offering an option.
Huh?
Really, there is no cost to anyone for this option and they give you the ability to turn the compression off if you don't like it.
Not sure how this sounds like Satellite or Cable TV Packages, theirs are and pay us an extra $40 to get a package that includes one channel that you want and 49 that you don't want. This is a case of we are giving oyu a free option at no additional cost that reduces how much data you will consume.
mwd25
macrumors regular
yeah, he said anywhere that matters
Michael Goff
Suspended
The idea comes from T-Mobile not having all streaming. Ergo, it favors some video over others. That's where people get the Net Neutrality argument from.
Exactly, by including the off switch and not charging either side anything for this, they completely eliminate the possible argument of net neutrality.
I'm glad they are giving us a choice to turn it off or on.
doctor-don
macrumors 68000
Do they live in the boonies?
I don't have a problem.
Now I would like to see it appearing on my plan when I check my Simple Choice account.
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
Facebook video is coming. Hopefully they are able to opt in to this service as wlell
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
I am wondering if youtube didn't opt in due to some sort of limitation in how they currently serve us our video streaming (my gut is saying "ads ads ads"). If this is as simple as opting in and allowing TMO's compression do its thing I would think that literally everyone would want to be on board. If my assumptions are correct I think we will see youtube jump on board at some point here.
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
We live about 15 minutes outside of Boston. Data Reception at our house and on most of the street we live on is spotty, however we have wifi, so that's a non issue. The reality is TMO isn;t as good as ATT (but probably as good or better than VZW) in the area, and I would say we are very far from the middle of nowhere, with a population of 4.5 million people.
At the end of the day we save enough money on our bill and reception is good enough where it matters (I need voice available to me everywhere and that hasn't been a problem) that it was worth the switch. Still, there are places without band 12 that aren't foreseen to get band 12 (Chicago area, 10 million people), which could be problematic for them.
I will say TMO has come a long way in a short amount of time/. I did a test drive in this same area with them and I was VERY frequently on Edge or worse. I ultimately decided not to switch at that time, but gave it another shot since I heard good things. It could still be beter, for sure, but, as I said, it's sufficient.
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
I can almost certainly tell you it will not. Music freedom doesn;t work with a hotpsot (it is actually written expressly in thier FAQ) and I imagine this would go the same way.
We just got a hotspot for our extra line (we got four for $120/mo and only use 3) so that will be for the son's ipad videos, though, depending on how much he ends up using a month, it might make more sense to buy him a cellular equipped tablet or smartphone witht he express interest of video streaming.
Glassed Silver
macrumors 68020
Yes right, except net neutrality isn't just made to protect customers directly, but also indirectly and content providers directly, as well as indirectly.
Say your service isn't in the list, don't you think this might skew the market for the video streaming providers a bit / weaken the chances for startups successfully emerging?
Glassed Silver:mac
LIVEFRMNYC
macrumors G3
Only time will tell. I sure hope carriers aren't able to make this exclusive. If other carriers are not able to make the services listed to be free streaming also, cause they have a contractual obligation to T-mobile, then that puts T--mobile in too much of a powerful position.
I'm glad I got the 2 lines unlimited for $100 when I did.
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
Unless I missed something, any video streaming service can opt in, right? I am unclear about music streaming though. Is it the same?
Saturn1217
macrumors 65816
I somehow doubt it is as simple as asking. Some type of money must be exchanging hands no?
This exactly why net neutrality is important. Even though I will personally benefit from this change I am still sad that T-Mobile is doing this. It is only a matter of time before the bigger carriers follow.
I think what the person is saying is this is a slippery slope. It sets a bad precedent. Sure T-Mobile is giving this for free to all simple choice customers. But would it really surprise you if Verizon came in a month later and offered the same thing but on a special higher priced tier. And then it's only a step away to: regular plan is $80/month. If you want video streaming you need to pay extra unless it is Netflix because they already gave us a butload of money. That is what people are worried about.
mkvelidadon
macrumors newbie
Music data isn't counted on prepaid plans.
jkmoses
macrumors member
Unfortunately they still are in a lot of areas. I had them for a year recently and calls were dropping all over the place and their "straightforward" plans were anything but. By the time they were done nickel and diming me I was paying more with them than on at&t.