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YouTube Accuses T-Mobile of Downgrading All Video With Binge On Program
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thanks for the above info.
with this info, its clear that persons who signed up for Binge On would get "optimized" (meaning throttled) video. from any place T-Mobile wants to "optimize" it.
The best that YouTube can complain about is that Binge On users may not have understood this. Youtube can not complain about anything else. And, therefore, that this is not a net neutrality issue is also clear.
Put it this way I had unlimited data through AT&T and was paying 150 a month for two lines. I got tired of their threats to get rid of unlimited data and not being able to tether. When I came back to the market I looked at what was out was out there and t-mobile has the best offer by far. 20 gb per line for two lines for 120 total. Price that at Verizon and AT&T it is around 300 a month. Sure the service isn't exactly the same but the price makes it easily the best value. Then with all you can stream music and now video. How do you beat that.
Glad someone gets it. I would say it isn't the consumers of t-mobile complaining it is Google.
Strange, two important parts about "Binge On":
1. I haven't noticed any difference in video quality between WiFi and LTE YouTube videos on T-Mobile. (And yes, I have "Binge On" turned on.)
2. You have to explicitly enabled Binge On. It isn't on by default.
1. I haven't noticed any difference in video quality between WiFi and LTE YouTube videos on T-Mobile. (And yes, I have "Binge On" turned on.)
2. You have to explicitly enabled Binge On. It isn't on by default.
So TMobile are doing exactly what they said they were going to do. What's there to complain about?
People using Binge On care more about how much they pay for data than the quality of the video they are watching - those that don't care about paying for data can turn it off and use the native apps for video streaming and pay for 1080p video streaming.
So having the option to save data by getting video that's actually optimized for a cell phone ( you do realize that 480P is the same resolution you get when watching a dvd on your HDTV right??) in addition to not being charged for a lot of select video streaming is a big big problem? You sir make no sense! The people that don't have a clue, won't see a difference- hence it being turned on by default, it's the most logical rollout. It's a great way to reduce network congestion while only benefitting customers. Okay it may steal one minute of someone's time if they do chose to turn it off, maybe those people should be compensated for their lost minute.
It's not throttling. They are compressing. If anything, it actually serves the consumer more since non partner services data is worth MORE now. Since 480 and 720 is almost indistinguishable on an iPhone.
Recently I have noticed that YouTube videos have been sucking on my train ride. When the 6S launched i switched from ATT and things were great. Recently YouTube videos constantly buffer. I thought it was network traffic NYC xmas time and been too busy to further investigate. I have never read the emails about binge since i am unlimited but now i see this...
Starting 11/19/15 you’ll get 3x more video with optimized streaming at DVD quality (+480p). The Binge On™ feature is included with all lines on your account, opt-out anytime.
Binge is on for me as well and i did not opt in.
iPad account is acting weird so i will have to figure that out. ahhhh i though i left the shenanigans when i left ATT.
Just my ignorant perspective at the moment...
BTW to switch binge off go to profile on the upper right of the account page and then media setting...
I'm fairly certain that the complaint was poorly worded by YouTube by using throttling to define reduced quality. Bing-on would in theory make your videos load faster since the reduced quality would be about a third of the pointless 1080p quality.
There's quite the noticiable difference between 480 and 720 on my iPhone 6 Plus.
And it doesn't seem fair to YouTube that someone else is compressing their video without their consent or the customers consent, since the customer isn't agreeing to compress YouTube since it's not a partner. This makes YouTube videos look crappy when they could be 1080p but aren't.
What T-mobile is doing is violating net neutrality. I will wager that binge on will get shut down by the FCC. It's only a matter of time.
Your credentials to define net neutrality are what?
Because the issue with net neutrality were something totally different. Those issues were a company like comcast throttling a competitor's traffic (like Netflix who is seeing a decline in comcast subscriptions due to cord cutting) and making them pay to get better bandwidth for their customers, or having people paying for both services get subpar performance for one of them.
T-Mobile allows a user to, at will, toggle the Bing On On or Off any time, and as often as they like, giving the USER the choice. Their "partners" simply enabled a protocol to transmit the video stream at a lower quality when detecting a t-mobile device. For doing so, it let Tmobile cusotmers have unlimited video streaming.... which, can you imagine if you tried to watch all that video on verizon or att what you would pay in overages????
YouTune could participate to, IF they wanted to.
This is also different from throttling internet speed from LTE speeds to Edge speeds. Your speed isn't throttled, the video stream is downgraded. Further calling into question this is really a net neutrality issue, which is the reason for the inquiry which is only to understand the process, not slap anyone on the wrist.
If customers didn't have a blatant choice to turn it on or off, that would be one thing. BUT THEY DO. AT WIll. Anytime they want. On OR off.
They also give unlimited music streaming with many services. That service just needs to transmit the stream in away T-mobile knows not to accrue data usage and is open to any service to sign up.
I personally like the feature, and I can turn it... OFF.
Could this fall under a net neutrality issue? Possibly, but people already want to throw this around like they are arm chair lawyers who know the law.
If there is anything that anyone SHOULD be possibly upset about, it's the implementation of the feature, not the feature itself. A lot of customers will miss the memo on this. (And most people will never really notice a difference in quality as all the tech sites of tested this and almost no one knew which stream was which with the naked eye on a screen so small...) I mean, there are ADs on TV ever 2 seconds about the feature, but they don't really illustrate how to use the feature and that would be the real problem.
T-Mo could also add a feature to the MyAccount app that lets someone more easily toggle the feature on or off, and that might be coming as a rebuilt and redesigned version of that app is coming any day and was supposed to launch when the binge on feature launch but was pulled for bugs, so we will see.
In the mean time, you can still log into your account settings and toggle it on or off. Maybe on my tablet if it was on T-Mo i might notice, but on my gorgeous LG display on a 5.7 inch screen, not seeing an issue with the video. I wouldn't probably notice if I wasn't reading this in the tech news.
I'm not sure I have seen the reduced quality. I would buffer and keep it moving. Nothing that critical for me to watch. I was just a bit disappointed that the buffering started recently since I have been thrilled with the speeds of T-Mobile. My friend that I ride the train with struggles to load pages on VZ but I assume that's because most people have vz and hammer the network at 6pm during the commute out of the city. Coverage is good for me in NYC, NJ and a recent trip to Cali. No contract so if the BS start or continues I'll move on.
Most people will never know the difference that's probably why it's on by default. Your speed issues are most likely unrelated and you could test it out yourself by toggling it off when ur speeds are slow and seeing if it makes a difference. My opinion is that turning it off will make the buffering worse.
Tmobile only throttles speed when u reach ur limit or you've used a ton of data on unlimited.
If you owned a video hosting website and didn't opt in to a video degradation program yet your videos were still being degraded, wouldn't you be upset? YouTube has a right to sue T-Mobile and I hope they do so this precedent can be set. T-Mobile is 100% in the wrong.
You do realize that YouTube also changes the video resolution without input from the user right. In this case they use current download speeds as the deciding factor instead of reduced Data usage.
You seem to have oddly strong yet not very intelligently constructed opinions about this.
This is just capitalism actually working for the consumer. YouTubes function is to host videos. T-Mobiles function is to serve it to customers. Customers can choose whether that video is degraded or not. This isn't a net neutrality issue or any other legal issue.
TMobile's wrong for giving their customers a choice to opt in or opt out of a program (Binge On) that will help reduce a customer's data usage?
You cannot be serious.Replace "Binge On" with "Ad Blocking Program" and your post would read like this:
When you say TMobile's wrong, you're basically saying the TMobile customer is wrong because it's the TMobile customer who made the personal decision to use Binge On.
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