T-Mobile CEO Apologizes In Open Letter to Consumers

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T-Mobile CEO John Legere has posted an open letter to consumers explaining how Binge On works and apologizing for his outburst last week.

I will however apologize for offending EFF and its supporters. Just because we don’t completely agree on all aspects of Binge On doesn’t mean I don’t see how they fight for consumers. We both agree that it is important to protect consumers' rights and to give consumers value. We have that in common, so more power to them. As I mentioned last week, we look forward to sitting down and talking with the EFF and that is a step we will definitely take. Unfortunately, my color commentary from last week is now drowning out the real value of Binge On – so hopefully this letter will help make that clear again.
 
I'm quite happy with the quality of Binge-On. It's a frickin' phone screen for pete's sake....
 
T-Mobile's pitch is that they're the Tron of cellular providers (they fight for the Users). But I find that a tough pill to swallow when the CEO says, " T-Mobile is a company that absolutely supports Net Neutrality and we believe in an open and free Internet" but then a few paragraphs later, "Binge On gives you FREE data that doesn’t hit your data bucket at all when you stream or watch from any of our participating video services".

I've heard implication that it should be easy and free to get on the list of providers that get unlimited data, but I remain skeptical. I'd really like to hear from an indy developer without a big bankroll regarding what the application process is really like.
 
"We strive to default all of our customer benefits to “ON.” We don’t like to make customers dig around to find great new benefits -- that is something a traditional carrier would do when they really hope you, the consumer, won’t take any action. Can you imagine the disappointment, if people saw our TV commercials about Binge On, then went to watch 10 hours of video expecting it to be free, and only THEN learned that they needed to go into their settings to activate this new benefit? That’s how the Carriers would do it, but not T-Mobile. Everyone has it from day 1, period."

100% agree with this statement as I used to work in retail selling phones. Almost nobody wants to go in and activate a benefit (or they don't want to dig through menu's) and usually, most of them off the bat think it should already be enabled, which brings them to the maximum data limit which ends up in throttling or overage charges.

I think that if your technical enough to know that your video is not HD (Most of my family cant see the difference between 480P and 1080P on their phones because the screen size is on average of 5 inches), you should know well enough how to turn a switch on and off in your cell phone.
 
CrazyRob said:
T-Mobile's pitch is that they're the Tron of cellular providers (they fight for the Users). But I find that a tough pill to swallow when the CEO says, " T-Mobile is a company that absolutely supports Net Neutrality and we believe in an open and free Internet" but then a few paragraphs later, "Binge On gives you FREE data that doesn’t hit your data bucket at all when you stream or watch from any of our participating video services".

I've heard implication that it should be easy and free to get on the list of providers that get unlimited data, but I remain skeptical. I'd really like to hear from an indy developer without a big bankroll regarding what the application process is really like.
Click to expand...

I use a private media server and just stream my own media. I highly doubt I get the free data, and they're still downgrading me to 1.5mbps. My server doesn't respond to slow speeds by downgrading the stream on the fly and just chokes to death. If I want to download the video instead of stream it... They still throttle me to 1.5mbps. I fail to see the benefit there.

If the service detected HLS/streaming and had a method of knowing that limiting to 1.5mbps would degrade the video to 480p, I wouldn't complain. Thats the downgrading they keep claiming it is. But when my private media server DOWNLOADS are being throttled, thats just throttling.

And to think I was using t-mobile because they seemed like the best user advocates.
 
bisby said:
I use a private media server and just stream my own media. I highly doubt I get the free data, and they're still downgrading me to 1.5mbps. My server doesn't respond to slow speeds by downgrading the stream on the fly and just chokes to death. If I want to download the video instead of stream it... They still throttle me to 1.5mbps. I fail to see the benefit there.

If the service detected HLS/streaming and had a method of knowing that limiting to 1.5mbps would degrade the video to 480p, I wouldn't complain. Thats the downgrading they keep claiming it is. But when my private media server DOWNLOADS are being throttled, thats just throttling.

And to think I was using t-mobile because they seemed like the best user advocates.
Click to expand...

"It is and always has been a feature that helps you stretch your data bucket by optimizing ALL of your video for your mobile devices."

" The result is that the data in your bucket is stretched by delivering streamed video in DVD quality - 480p or better (whether you have a 2GB, 6GB or 10GB plan etc.) so your data lasts longer."
 
They should offer a opt-in service that throttles all video content to 1.5 while enabled, but doesn't count towards data and then have a list of all video content that works.
If the video content doesn't have adaptive bitrate streaming (and just buffers) there should be a warning somewhere that it's not compliant and remove binge-on for that particular provider.

Picking and choosing providers while all of them are affected and lying to customers on what binge-on actually is... that's the problem.
 
I like being able to tell my kids they can go nuts with Netflix but if you don't want them messing with the stream then just turn the feature off.
 
bisby said:
I use a private media server and just stream my own media. I highly doubt I get the free data, and they're still downgrading me to 1.5mbps. My server doesn't respond to slow speeds by downgrading the stream on the fly and just chokes to death. If I want to download the video instead of stream it... They still throttle me to 1.5mbps. I fail to see the benefit there.

If the service detected HLS/streaming and had a method of knowing that limiting to 1.5mbps would degrade the video to 480p, I wouldn't complain. Thats the downgrading they keep claiming it is. But when my private media server DOWNLOADS are being throttled, thats just throttling.

And to think I was using t-mobile because they seemed like the best user advocates.
Click to expand...

Then just turn the feature off.
 
So no matter the issue, I promise you that I’ll keep listening to customers, keep eliminating pain points and keep fighting hard for wireless consumers, because that’s why I’m here!

If you really listened to the customers you will know they want unlimited data plan and are willing to pay for it.
 
Sparky said:
So no matter the issue, I promise you that I’ll keep listening to customers, keep eliminating pain points and keep fighting hard for wireless consumers, because that’s why I’m here!

If you really listened to the customers you will know they want unlimited data plan and are willing to pay for it.
Click to expand...

T-mo has unlimited data plans. They don't have unlimited hotspot or tethering plans but you can get a certain amount of tethering along with your unlimited data. In fact they offer the widest array of data plans I have seen from a carrier in the U.S.
 
Don't say stupid shit in the first place and you won't have to apologize for it later. Oh yeah, and get a haircut.
 
Sparky said:
So no matter the issue, I promise you that I’ll keep listening to customers, keep eliminating pain points and keep fighting hard for wireless consumers, because that’s why I’m here!

If you really listened to the customers you will know they want unlimited data plan and are willing to pay for it.
Click to expand...

And you can. The $90 a month plan. Turn off Binge-On all you want.

People are acting like they don't have choices here. Maybe they just aren't used to it coming from a cell company (I can understand that), but tell me another carrier that gives you these choices at these prices and I'll be happy to switch.

<<crickets>>

I didn't think so.
 
Zero rating is a tactic that is harmful to net neutrality than most because it is so insidious. It takes big-picture cognition to look beyond WOO "FREE" STUFF and see the harm it does, whereas other more traditional methods such as caps, filtering, surcharges and the like are relatively more likely to raise general consumer ire.

T-mobile may be amongst the lesser evils in terms of telecoms; hell, they're my current provider. However, they need to be taken to task both for their non-Net Neutral policies like BingeOn (as well as its opt-out implementation ), top-tier so-called "unlimited" plans that cap you if they detect you tethering, and more. If you want to be the "uncarrier" that stands up for consumers, then start delivering instead of making it yet more marketing drivel.

Much like their landlind breathren, there are BIG problem with mobile telecoms in this nation and none of the big names are immune. Being best of the worst isn't much of an accomplishment if you're barely above the bar. There are big policy changes I'd like to see implemented to finally wrest our communications infrastructure (much of which we the people have been subsidizing in various forms, yet is owned and controlled by a handful of private interests) from these cretins.
 
Bring back the grandfathered family plans! T-Mobile is starting to screw its customers like ATNT did in the past
 
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