T-Mobile To Let You Stream Video Without Using Your Data Plan?

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If the rumors are true, T-Mobile is going to make a huge announcement at its Uncarrier 10 event on November 10th.

You'd expect T-Mobile's 10th Uncarrier announcement to be a huge one, and according to @evleaks, that's exactly what we're in for. The reliable leakster claims that the next big perk for T-Mobile customers will allow them to stream video from apps like Netflix and HBO without having it count against their data plan.
 
I used to be on a grandfathered 100 minute talk / unlimited data + text plan, and never used more than a couple hundred megs per month in data. Got tired of working around my limited talking minutes, so i opted to pay 10 bucks more a month for unlimited talk + text / 1G 4g data... and suddenly i'm going over my cap every month?

seems pretty shady to me, but unfortunately other carriers are just too damn expensive.
 
While this would be a cool thing to do I have my doubts. I don't even use Netflix very often but if I knew it didn't count against my data then it's probably all I'd at any point that I have nothing else to do.

This just doesn't seem right. How do you cap people's data but allow them to use 100's of gig's a month on streaming?

Hey T-Mobile, wanna be different? Offer unlimited data to everyone for everything.
 
They already offer this with music apps/data.

I burn though 600-1gb of music data a night at work and never have issues.
 
oMek said:
They already offer this with music apps/data.

I burn though 600-1gb of music data a night at work and never have issues.
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That's me as well. Pandora is running 6-10 hours a day on my phone after they made that free.
 
DocSavage said:
Free sounds good and all, but isn't that directly against net neutrality?
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Yes, yes it is.

Because this means that everything NOT Netflix or HBO Go/Now is effectively limited. Which is in direct violation of the rules the FCC set.
 
I have T-Mobile, i pay $70 a month prepaid for unlimited Talk/Text/Data and 5 GB of Hotspot, and they already give me free music streaming, so if they add video, thats pretty much everything i would use data for. For the record, i use on average around 40-50 gb of data a month.
 
Still rocking the $30 prepaid plan and I have to say that I don't even use my talk time due to google talk. If they would offer this free streaming for twitch or youtube, I think I'll be set for life.
 
I could see how the music streaming would be excused given the lower bandwidth requirements and the fact that the deal includes every popular music streaming service, but if true this one would stink to high heaven. Once you give users unlimited bandwidth on two of the most popular video streaming services (which will result in many gigabytes of data use per month per user), you're telling the world that you have plenty of bandwidth available and it doesn't cost that much. Thus, limiting it to specific services is a scam to [presumably] extort money from Internet businesses willing and able to pay.

On the other hand, if they don't get stung by the feds on this, other mobile providers are going to have to step up to the streets, so it's possible everyone could end up benefiting.
 
Scooter30 said:
LOL,you'd be lucky to even get 3G on T-mobile where I live.
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T-Mobile speeds are very good where I live/work, but it doesn't really matter as I'm on WiFi most the time. Since I'm responsible for the WiFi at home and the office, I make sure the it works for me :)

I rarely bump in to the 1GB limit, and the couple of times I did, the slower speed for a couple days wasn't a problem.
 
This changes nothing for me.

I'm on their unlimited data/text/phone/everything plan and the two primary phones get 5 GB of tethered data each. So far, our data usage for one month was 25 GB, 19 GB and 13 GB for the 3 phones. Never once had any slowness or issues with T-Mobile. I never use wireless unless I have zero service and then I can make any calls I want and surf online.

But good for T-Mobile, keep building towers and keep giving me 20+ Mb down! :D
 
Maybe the carriers and internet providers in general can stop with the BS about "network capacity" as a justification for caps then.

Netflix is ~37% of US internet traffic and climbing. Never mind YouTube! If this really was a strain, they couldn't afford to not count the single biggest usage of bandwidth out there.
 
Yea that's great and all but that's against net neutrality. If they included all streaming like YouTube and Plex I wouldn't have a problem with this but it soulds like Netflix and HBO+ is throwing them money on the side for this.
 
DukenukemX said:
Yea that's great and all but that's against net neutrality. If they included all streaming like YouTube and Plex I wouldn't have a problem with this but it soulds like Netflix and HBO+ is throwing them money on the side for this.
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Isn't that similar to Comcast not counting their own streaming against your data cap?
 
HisSvt76 said:
Isn't that similar to Comcast not counting their own streaming against your data cap?
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Sounds the same to me. Like I said, if they allowed all data streams then it would be such a problem. Like only downloading or torrenting would count against your data plan. But a select few commercial data streams is against net neutrality.
 
DukenukemX said:
Yea that's great and all but that's against net neutrality. If they included all streaming like YouTube and Plex I wouldn't have a problem with this but it soulds like Netflix and HBO+ is throwing them money on the side for this.
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Uhm plex is not a streaming service... Its a service to allow you to setup your own individual streaming service & thus no individual IP to white-list.
 
Created a discussion thread a few days ago about this:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1880149

If it comes true, so be it, and as a T-Mobile customer already enjoying the Music Freedom aspect (on a plan that supposedly wouldn't support it when announced) I'm looking forward to this too.
 
This is exactly the kind of thing that appears nice on the surface, but is a major violation of Net Neutrality that harms the consumer in the long run. It would be bad enough if streaming video didn't count, but having only specific content providers? That's a textbook example of further collusion between big players in the industry to enrich each other while "graciously" claiming they're doing something for the customer. However, for any company too small or unwilling to grease the mobile providers' palms with sliver, their content will be "non-preferred" counting against the data cap

It also further highlights the hypocrisy of mobile providers, especially T-Mobile, who had a whiny shit-fit a little while ago about how a tiny minority of people were getting around tethering provisions, all of which were already paying for the highest plan w/ unlimited LTE anyway. While content providers and web services continue to exalt the prominence of downloadable media, "the cloud", streaming services etc.. it is anathema for ISPs - be the mobile tower or hardwired cable - to keep insisting on data caps, tethering, and other usage restrictions...except when suitably hefty bribe comes along, like this, to treat certain content as preferable.

We must insist on pure Net Neutrality as well as exposing the greed of major ISPs that refuse to upgrade their hardware (despite the taxpayer funded subsidies, tax breaks and other benefits that they receive, only for what is built - much of it on our dollar - remains their exclusive private property!) and then claim that evil subscribers are using too much data.
 
Xaeos said:
This is exactly the kind of thing that appears nice on the surface, but is a major violation of Net Neutrality that harms the consumer in the long run. It would be bad enough if streaming video didn't count, but having only specific content providers? That's a textbook example of further collusion between big players in the industry to enrich each other while "graciously" claiming they're doing something for the customer. However, for any company too small or unwilling to grease the mobile providers' palms with sliver, their content will be "non-preferred" counting against the data cap

It also further highlights the hypocrisy of mobile providers, especially T-Mobile, who had a whiny shit-fit a little while ago about how a tiny minority of people were getting around tethering provisions, all of which were already paying for the highest plan w/ unlimited LTE anyway. While content providers and web services continue to exalt the prominence of downloadable media, "the cloud", streaming services etc.. it is anathema for ISPs - be the mobile tower or hardwired cable - to keep insisting on data caps, tethering, and other usage restrictions...except when suitably hefty bribe comes along, like this, to treat certain content as preferable.

We must insist on pure Net Neutrality as well as exposing the greed of major ISPs that refuse to upgrade their hardware (despite the taxpayer funded subsidies, tax breaks and other benefits that they receive, only for what is built - much of it on our dollar - remains their exclusive private property!) and then claim that evil subscribers are using too much data.
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Lol.. You sound a little but hurt there buddy..

Net neutrality is about prioritizing some data above others. This isn't prioritizing shit. This is just allowing some not to count against the threshold, but we'll still all have equal priority. Tmo has been doing it for a while with music already.

And look at this compared to competitors.. Specifically att who could allow customers to stream their dtv service usage free under existing rules. This is tmo leveling the playing field. Our rather forcing the competition's hands.
 
bastage said:
Lol.. You sound a little but hurt there buddy..

Net neutrality is about prioritizing some data above others. This isn't prioritizing shit. This is just allowing some not to count against the threshold, but we'll still all have equal priority. Tmo has been doing it for a while with music already.

And look at this compared to competitors.. Specifically att who could allow customers to stream their dtv service usage free under existing rules. This is tmo leveling the playing field. Our rather forcing the competition's hands.
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This is absolutely "prioritizing" certain data over others, which happens both fiscally and technically in this case. When certain forms of data from certain sources are treated preferentially - being faster, zero rate etc... that is absolutely giving them priority and violating net neutrality. Its no different from Comcast now implementing caps and excepting media from certain services (that they own, partner with) from counting against said cap. When I purchase service from an ISP, I don't expect to be negatively incentivized fiscally or otherwise, because I rather download my media, or stream it from a "non-partner" site.

There have been many articles discussing the net neutrality implications of this decision - a cursory google provides plenty of them. Hell, T-Mobile's CEO came out against net neutrality the minute it endangered his plan to do this with certain music streaming services - the predecessor to the video streaming plan now being implemented. If we allows this to continue, even when it is posed as a "bonus" to customers, we're going to end up with ISPs that sell us access to "preferred websites" at certain rates, and heavily penalize us on others, not like buying TV channel packages.

4mwg3Pb
 
Well given that this behavior is not new I would say that at least so far the FCC says your wrong.. This does not differ from the already existing Music Freedom feature.
 
bastage said:
Uhm plex is not a streaming service... Its a service to allow you to setup your own individual streaming service & thus no individual IP to white-list.
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Hence the problem with this. It's a stream and it's a service, but it's not commercial and the IP is dynamic, which makes it hard to white-list. What T-Mobile is doing is trying to avoid "unlimited data" while still having the edge over AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. People don't want data caps period. It's either all unlimited or nothing. Either that or allow me to add trusted IPs like a Plex server that won't count against my data plan.
 
DukenukemX said:
Hence the problem with this. It's a stream and it's a service, but it's not commercial and the IP is dynamic, which makes it hard to white-list. What T-Mobile is doing is trying to avoid "unlimited data" while still having the edge over AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. People don't want data caps period. It's either all unlimited or nothing. Either that or allow me to add trusted IPs like a Plex server that won't count against my data plan.
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And tmo still gives you the option to have truely unlimited.. Its 30 bucks a month & then you stream whatever you want.. Watch the promo's too & you will also find that they give a ton of data on their promos (mostly for family plans) for very little money compared to their competitors..

Currently 4 lines get 10gb of data each (not shared) for 120. & that can be doubled for 10 bucks per line so 20gb each (total of 80gb) with unlimited talk & text as well is 160. Breaks down to 40 per line (plus taxes of course) for 20gb.. Thats an extremely large amount of data for a low cost compared to the other big carriers.

Couple months ago there was also a promo that for 2 lines you got unlimited talk, text & truly unlimited high speed data for 100 bucks which is insane comapred to the others.
 
Everything about T-mobile sounds awesome...so whats the catch?
 
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