T-Mobile: We're Not Throttling YouTube, We're 'Optimizing' It!

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Countering YouTube’s recent allegations that it is throttling video content, T-Mobile claims that it is simply providing its users with speeds that are appropriate for use on mobile networks.

"Using the term “throttle” is misleading," a representative tells me in an e-mail. "We aren’t slowing down YouTube or any other site. In fact, because video is optimized for mobile devices, streaming from these sites should be just as fast, if not faster than before. A better phrase is “mobile optimized” or a less flattering “downgraded” is also accurate."
 
I'm confused as to why people choose a bottom-tier provider that has built a business upon cutting corners and providing inferior service, and then act surprised when shit like this happens? That is like being surprised when you go to McDonalds and end up with a chunk of bone in your burger.
 
Tmo is actually pretty good and on par with Verizon that I have now. Can only speak for metro since I don't live in the sticks. I'd take Verizon and Tmo over AT&T then Sprint. Kind of odd though that Tmo kind of screwed over their partner Google since they need them for growth and as a potential investor for network upgrades.
 
GotNoRice said:
I'm confused as to why people choose a bottom-tier provider that has built a business upon cutting corners and providing inferior service, and then act surprised when shit like this happens? That is like being surprised when you go to McDonalds and end up with a chunk of bone in your burger.
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This is nothing but T-Mo trying to get Youtube to play ball with its unlimited video streaming bit. They probably want Youtube to pay for whatever bandwidth goes through T-Mo's network, and Youtube is like "Nah, guys. We're good."
 
The customers complaining must be running older phones with a 3G connection. That would have been the case on my Nexus 4. My Nexus 5X on LTE is running YouTube videos just fine.
 
amddragonpc said:
The customers complaining must be running older phones with a 3G connection. That would have been the case on my Nexus 4. My Nexus 5X on LTE is running YouTube videos just fine.
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HSPA+ on my Nexus 4 is almost as fast my LTE on my Nexus 6 in the same spot here on Cape Cod.

O wells.
 
480p on mobile ... I guess I don't see the problem. Even a quality 360p stream is nice, except that a lot of 360p is over-compressed on YouTube.
 
GotNoRice said:
I'm confused as to why people choose a bottom-tier provider that has built a business upon cutting corners and providing inferior service, and then act surprised when shit like this happens? That is like being surprised when you go to McDonalds and end up with a chunk of bone in your burger.
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I live just outside of Chicago and have no complaints with T-Mobile in fact the few areas I have coverage issues with I have the same issues with my company provided Verizon phone.
 
But but but... what do people do with their new 5" 4K screens on their phones?!?!?

In all seriousness though, yes, 480p or something is fine for youtube on tiny screens, and some kind of sanity check has to be made SOMEWHERE in the system. I'm not really in favor of this kind of drama over what should be easily worked out between youtube and T-Mobile but you can't just waste unlimited amounts of bandwidth when pushing videos to tiny screens.

There are a few growing exceptions however: What if you are using HDMI out on your phone and streaming those videos to a big screen? Then, it gets more complicated. You need options to retain the speed and quality of the video.
 
There's no need for 1080p+ on a tiny little screen, and to be fair, doesn't T-Mobile allow you to turn it off?
 
MrSteel74 said:
I live just outside of Chicago and have no complaints with T-Mobile in fact the few areas I have coverage issues with I have the same issues with my company provided Verizon phone.
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I also have t-mobile in the Chicago burbs it's great, but try upstate new York or Tennessee. Their coverage is pretty much non existent if you aren't in one of the major metro areas of any given state. These are based on my own experiences tho. Still, I am paying 100/mo including tax for 2 unlimited lines, the price more than makes up for it. I can settle for AT&T's 3g network when there is no tmo network available.
 
/cough
Neville Ray at the Uncarrier announcement asked why YouTube was not apart of the Binge On package. He in so many words said that YouTube would not modify their traffic to allow for the tagging so that T-Mobile needed to have data not count towards a users data pool.
/cough

It does not surprise me that John Legere has stated that he is in support of a full open internet, but then wanted to penalize customers by setting a limit that would throttle even unlimited data plans at a certain point. Remember kids, he came from AT&T.
 
GotNoRice said:
I'm confused as to why people choose a bottom-tier provider that has built a business upon cutting corners and providing inferior service, and then act surprised when shit like this happens? That is like being surprised when you go to McDonalds and end up with a chunk of bone in your burger.
Click to expand...

I use T-Mobile. Not sure about the others but I pay $106 for (2) phones with "unlimited" data, wifi calling, and free data and texting roaming in 140+ countries. Coverage is good where I live. The free international roaming saved my ass in Canada and Thailand.

Sign into your account and opt out of the "binge on" throttling, for each line. Despicable how they switched it on by default.
 
I think T-Mobile made it too hard for people to turn off binge-on:

For postpaid accounts
  1. Log in to My T-Mobile.
  2. Click the menu icon in the upper right.
  3. Click Profile.
  4. Next to Binge On, select if you want it to be ON or OFF.

4 steps?? This is ridiculous!!
 
GotNoRice said:
I'm confused as to why people choose a bottom-tier provider that has built a business upon cutting corners and providing inferior service, and then act surprised when shit like this happens? That is like being surprised when you go to McDonalds and end up with a chunk of bone in your burger.
Click to expand...

Have you tried TMo in the past few years? Everyone I've helped switch has loved it. Cheaper bills, better service, and consumer-friendly policies. Sure, their CSR's may suck depending who you go to, but that's universal with all carriers.

There's a reason why recent commercials by Sprint show them only beating AT&T/Verizon and not TMo. It's because TMo has been heavily investing in their network and has surpassed everyone in a lot of markets.
 
Spidey329 said:
Have you tried TMo in the past few years? Everyone I've helped switch has loved it. Cheaper bills, better service, and consumer-friendly policies. Sure, their CSR's may suck depending who you go to, but that's universal with all carriers.

There's a reason why recent commercials by Sprint show them only beating AT&T/Verizon and not TMo. It's because TMo has been heavily investing in their network and has surpassed everyone in a lot of markets.
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No, the reason is that Tmobile isn't even considered a top tier provider so there's no reason to compare to it. I don't care about paying more if the coverage and speed is superior.

Tmo are only good in big cities. With AT&T or Sprint, you can get LTE in the middle of a forest or lake. Rural areas too. Not so much for Tmo.
 
braamer said:
There's no need for 1080p+ on a tiny little screen, and to be fair, doesn't T-Mobile allow you to turn it off?
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Ok Mr. Obama.
I paid for a Note 5 with a 1440p screen on network X. I pay for Y data at Z speed.
Stay the hell out of how I choose to use my data, and at what speed. You're only involvement should be if presented by law enforcement a warrant, or if I exceed my data allotment.
Those are the only two times that an ISP/carrier/whatever should have any involvement in my usage. It should be up to the content providers.
 
alxlwson said:
Ok Mr. Obama.
I paid for a Note 5 with a 1440p screen on network X. I pay for Y data at Z speed.
Stay the hell out of how I choose to use my data, and at what speed. You're only involvement should be if presented by law enforcement a warrant, or if I exceed my data allotment.
Those are the only two times that an ISP/carrier/whatever should have any involvement in my usage. It should be up to the content providers.
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The companies lose either way ... in this case they defaulted to the lower quality (but unlimited access) since that is probably what most of their customers prefer ... if they had defaulted to higher quality (but limited access) they would have upset a wider band of customers ... since this can be disabled by the user in their account settings I don't see the issue here
 
kbrickley said:
The companies lose either way ... in this case they defaulted to the lower quality (but unlimited access) since that is probably what most of their customers prefer ... if they had defaulted to higher quality (but limited access) they would have upset a wider band of customers ... since this can be disabled by the user in their account settings I don't see the issue here
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Why companies choose to cater to the ignorant
is beyond me. Let people run their overages. The unknowning are the ones that create the most profit
 
Because when I need to watch a high quality/high res video stream, I look for it on youtube with my phone... riiiiight.... :rolleyes:
 
This sound like the government saying they are not going to increase your taxes, they are going to increase their revenues instead.
 
from the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
to regulate and especially to reduce the speed of by such means

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/throttling

"Using the term “throttle” is misleading," a representative tells me in an e-mail. "We aren’t slowing down YouTube or any other site. In fact, because video is optimized for mobile devices, streaming from these sites should be just as fast, if not faster than before. A better phrase is “mobile optimized” or a less flattering “downgraded” is also accurate."

If I so chose to stream a high quality video over the Tmobile mobile network and they intentionally slow it down, as per the definition of the word THROTTLE, it is exactly that.
Fuck off Tmobile marketing team, give me the speed I pay you for.

FWIW I have been a Tmobile customer for 10 years now.
 
alxlwson said:
Ok Mr. Obama.
I paid for a Note 5 with a 1440p screen on network X. I pay for Y data at Z speed.
Stay the hell out of how I choose to use my data, and at what speed. You're only involvement should be if presented by law enforcement a warrant, or if I exceed my data allotment.
Those are the only two times that an ISP/carrier/whatever should have any involvement in my usage. It should be up to the content providers.
Click to expand...

You do realize that you can turn it off? Your rant is pointless.
 
Gah Duma said:
No, the reason is that Tmobile isn't even considered a top tier provider so there's no reason to compare to it. I don't care about paying more if the coverage and speed is superior.

Tmo are only good in big cities. With AT&T or Sprint, you can get LTE in the middle of a forest or lake. Rural areas too. Not so much for Tmo.
Click to expand...

My tmo phone worked as good as verizon when I was working out of state. Both carriers didn't work in certain areas in Delbarton, WV. When one worked the other worked.
 
braamer said:
You do realize that you can turn it off? Your rant is pointless.
Click to expand...

So...throttling is on by default, which is illegal. But since you can dig aroud in some settings (if you know they exist) and turn it off so everything is ok? Not sure I subscribe to that logic.
 
It's really simple. Everyone is butt hurt because T Mobile's providing better service at a better price and they may have to compete with that.

Fuckem. F*** them all. I'm quite happy with my $65 a month service and have no desire to change to any of those other greedy bastards.
 
How are they throttling it? they are not slowing it down. They are compressing it so it runs better on the network. I haven't noticed a difference with it on or off. I have tested and can't tell a difference with my naked eye. In the end, isn't that all that matters? I'm just as satisfied now as I was before it was enabled.
 
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