T-Mobile Unveils Free Video Streaming For Two Dozen Services

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It looks like the rumors last week were true, T-Mobile is offering free video streaming for two dozen video services and has doubled its data plans. :eek:

“You can stream video without using any of your data bucket,” Legere confirmed. The service is launching with 24 participating partners, including Netflix, HBO Now, HBO Go, Hulu, Sling, ESPN, Showtime, Starz, Encore, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Crackle, UStream, and others.
 
As a long time T-Mobile customer taking advantage of everything they throw my way, I'm a happy camper with this addition to my service and intend to make full use of it along with my Netflix subscription as soon as it goes live in a few days.
 
I was about to mention exactly that, isn't this a violation of Net Neutrality?

Same thing was asked when they did this for music. I believe the consensus is because they will add more services and they are not taking any money for this, it doesn't violate NN.
 
No this is not a Net Neutrality issue. It was asked & discussed at the release event for this today.

Tmobile has themselves covered in multiple ways.

1. The consumer can opt in or out at will.
2. No money has exchanged hands for who is or is not on the list of providers.
3. Legere also made it clear that ANY provider that met the technical requirements would get the same treatment (including porn)
4. Quality is actually being reduced for the free streaming. Limited to 480p (which is in my opinion fine on a smart phone).
 
I'm still on their totally unlimited plan with 3 phones and we have zero restrictions when it comes to data, text or minutes. And there is zero throttling when it comes to data usage as well.

But this is awesome for anyone that wants to jump ship and join T-Mobile, they are really changing things up and for the better.
 
I'm still on their totally unlimited plan with 3 phones and we have zero restrictions when it comes to data, text or minutes. And there is zero throttling when it comes to data usage as well.

But this is awesome for anyone that wants to jump ship and join T-Mobile, they are really changing things up and for the better.

It will include your hotspot as well.
 
That sounds amazing. Between the unlocked BLs on most phones and this I wish I had T-Mobile. I really cant complain about AT&T but that's only because I am still on the family plan not paying a dime. In a raise or two when I go about getting my own account I will go T-Mobile for Washington D.C.
 
Which is worthless when you live in a small town and they don't even have 3G coverage,let alone LTE.
 
Which is worthless when you live in a small town and they don't even have 3G coverage,let alone LTE.

Sometimes it sucks not to be part of the 80.7%+ of the population that lives in urban areas. I lived in the middle of no-where Idaho when I switched to T-Mobile back in 2012, the LTE was fantastic.
 
So TMobile is gonna be the gatekeeper to the land of "no throttling" ... yeah, no net neutrality violation there, right.
 
T-Mo is looking better and better. It would be super nice for trips to be able to have no data used streaming.
 
I'm more interested in them doubling the amount of data.

I'm only on the base 1GB plan (used to be 500mb), so now I should have 2GB.
Since I'm on WiFi at home and the office, I really don't use that much data. Only remember going over it once this year, a few days before the new billing cycle. I prefer the way T-Mobile just slows down the connection when you are over, since email, etc. still works, just slower.
 
Which is worthless when you live in a small town and they don't even have 3G coverage,let alone LTE.

every year I go on vacation to a tiny town in NC and get LTE or 4G HSPA+ most of the time... hell even for the drive up there is only a part of Georgia and the middle of nowhere Florida (like seriously middle of nowhere, nothing for many miles) where i drop down to EDGE
 
Speaking to an audience of seemingly enthusiastic T-Mobile employees, Legere promised “to fix a stupid, broken, arrogant industry” while repeatedly slamming the competition his company faces from “Dumb and Dumber” businesses AT&T and Verizon. And what will fix the industry this time, according to Legere? Doubled data packs and free video.

Body blow followed by an upper cut.

Legere, like a Boss!
 
I'm more interested in them doubling the amount of data.

I'm only on the base 1GB plan (used to be 500mb), so now I should have 2GB.
Since I'm on WiFi at home and the office, I really don't use that much data. Only remember going over it once this year, a few days before the new billing cycle. I prefer the way T-Mobile just slows down the connection when you are over, since email, etc. still works, just slower.

Starts 11/15 and you don't get it automatically. You have to either go online or call and change your plan.
 
Starts 11/15 and you don't get it automatically. You have to either go online or call and change your plan.

Not what the article says

"As of this Sunday, all of T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plans — personal and business — will have double the data they currently do."

Guess I'll wait and see.
 
Not what the article says

"As of this Sunday, all of T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plans — personal and business — will have double the data they currently do."

Guess I'll wait and see.

Trust me. I work for T-Mobile. You have to request to switch.
 
Trust me. I work for T-Mobile. You have to request to switch.

Trust me. I work for T-Mobile. You do not have to request the data plan update. It will be automatic on the simple choice plans just like when we changed the 500mb to 1gb.
 
Objection! Asked and answered. ^^
It has been inadequately answered.

There's clearly a fundamental conflict with one of the principles of net neutrality, which say ISPs shouldn't have the authority to setup routing and pricing that prefers some content over others. It's irrelevant whether or not T mobile has good intentions - they shouldn't have this option in the first place.

Even with their good intentions, there are already some obvious inequities between types of data. As an example, if I personally want to send a terabyte of non-qualifying data over the internet (ex: remote backup) I have to pay full price, whereas content streaming services don't - that's such an obvious violation of net neutrality.
 
that's such an obvious violation of net neutrality.

No.... No its not...

What you just gave an example of is complete hogwash...

Nobody is paying T-Mobile to do this. As a mobile ISP T-Mo looked at a problem & that was that there was entirely too much bandwidth being used by streaming & they needed a way to REDUCE this amount to each customer (keep in mind that they already offered truly unlimited non throttled data).

Now for T-Mobile to simply reduce the quality of the stream thus reducing the bandwidth that would be a violation of Net Neutrality (as Comcast already found out).

What T-Mobile has done here instead is made it so that people WANT to reduce the quality of their stream by not counting the data that the consumer voluntarily accepts being reduced.

This can be toggled on & off at will by the consumer. Furthermore no money is being exchanged between T-Mobile and the content providers for this & Legere has already made it clear that any video content provider that wants to undergo the same technical aspects will be given the treatment (even porn).

So for this to work it is an "opt in" by both the content provider as well as by the end user.

Your example of doing a 1tb upload however can not be reduced to maintain the available bandwidth as 1tb of data is 1tb of data.. To make it any less you would be changing the compression of the internet & if you could figure out how to do that & reduce the overall bandwidth used to a third of what it currently is then more power to you & buy my a far cause you would be one rich mofo...


disclaimer: lastly the views of this post are my own & not that of my employer. the information I provide is what I gathered by using a little common sense & watching the uncarrier x release video that is publicly available to everyone.
 
Nobody is paying T-Mobile to do this.
That's irrelevant. Net neutrality is violated when ISPs give certain traffic preferential billing or network access. Money does not need to exchange hands for the service provider to treat traffic in a non-neutral way. It's literally in the name "net neutrality" - they are not treating network traffic neutrally with this program.

As a mobile ISP T-Mo looked at a problem & that was that there was entirely too much bandwidth being used by streaming & they needed a way to REDUCE
Regardless of whether this is true, it's independent to the question of whether they are violating net neutrality. At best it's an argument for why fully neutral network management policies shouldn't be enforced, but it doesn't mean the word "neutral" gets redefined.

It's fine if you want to argue that this type of preferential access should be allowed based on the business realities - you can make your case for it, but don't pretend they're providing non-preferential neutral network access when they so obviously aren't.

So for this to work it is an "opt in" by both the content provider as well as by the end user.
Again, irrelevant to the question of whether they are providing neutral network access. They aren't.

Your example of doing a 1tb upload however can not be reduced to maintain the available bandwidth as 1tb of data is 1tb of data..
Right, so I get charged for that 1TB of network access, and yet consuming an equivalent 1TB of Netflix doesn't. That's giving Netflix and their users preferential service - it's not neutral service provision.
 
That's irrelevant. Net neutrality is violated when ISPs give certain traffic preferential billing or network access. Money does not need to exchange hands for the service provider to treat traffic in a non-neutral way. It's literally in the name "net neutrality" - they are not treating network traffic neutrally with this program.

Net-Neutrality has never been even discussed as applying to a mobile ISP in the exactness that you are referring to. Literally every picture sent uses data, but no carrier has counted that against your data allotments since MMS became common in the mid 2000's.

Regardless of whether this is true, it's independent to the question of whether they are violating net neutrality. At best it's an argument for why fully neutral network management policies shouldn't be enforced, but it doesn't mean the word "neutral" gets redefined.

If T-Mobile was in violation of it then the FCC would have smacked them around long ago for the Music Freedom service. Its not like Tmo was hiding it given that there was a national advertising campaign for it or anything.

It's fine if you want to argue that this type of preferential access should be allowed based on the business realities - you can make your case for it, but don't pretend they're providing non-preferential neutral network access when they so obviously aren't.

Yes they are... They are not giving any service preference over another.. Any video streaming that meets the requirements gets it.. ie no preferential treatment.

Again, irrelevant to the question of whether they are providing neutral network access. They aren't.

It is completely relevant.. The point of net neutrality was not to maintain an open internet for the sake of having an open internet. It's point is to police the ISP's into giving competing products the same treatment thus not making a consumers decision for them.


Right, so I get charged for that 1TB of network access, and yet consuming an equivalent 1TB of Netflix doesn't. That's giving Netflix and their users preferential service - it's not neutral service provision.

So by this logic 1,000,000mb = 333,333mb...

Man I am not sure how I can respond in any more detail then the above without getting an infraction
 
love me some T-Mo I have the unlimited everything plan, but someone mentioned this affects your mobile hotspot as well, if thats the case thats bad ass.
 
I'm probably in the minority, but I think this stinks. This is going to cause a major slowdown on their network. For me, I rarely look at video and this defeats the purpose of having a lot of cheap data (5GB) when the network is slow.
 
Body blow followed by an upper cut.

Legere, like a Boss!

All while they increase the price for the unlimited plan from $80 to $95(!) dollars.

It'll only be a matter of time before T-Mobile becomes another Verizon and AT&T...mark my words on that. Prices will slowly increase and services will slowly be drawn back.

Remember...AT&T and Verizon didn't start out as greedy not-giving-a-fuck type companies.
 
All while they increase the price for the unlimited plan from $80 to $95(!) dollars.

It'll only be a matter of time before T-Mobile becomes another Verizon and AT&T...mark my words on that. Prices will slowly increase and services will slowly be drawn back.

Remember...AT&T and Verizon didn't start out as greedy not-giving-a-fuck type companies.

This. I'm on an unlimited plan with two lines and from what I understand, I'm grandfathered in for two years and then I'm SOL. People that were/are paying for unlimited don't need to have music and video streams not count against them but it seems like we are the ones paying for the lower tiers to use more data (or rather not use up more data in their plan) now :p. The price increase sucks :(. If they wanted to stream so dang much, they should have paid for unlimited. Now people who had unlimited for video are going to move to cheaper tiers and T-Mobile is just going to raise the unlimited plan's prices even more. Yay! :( /rant
 
love me some T-Mo I have the unlimited everything plan, but someone mentioned this affects your mobile hotspot as well, if thats the case thats bad ass.

I think you only get the 14GB of tethering if you switch to the new unlimited plan that is more expensive. The current unlimited plan ($80) is still at 7GB.
 
This. I'm on an unlimited plan with two lines and from what I understand, I'm grandfathered in for two years and then I'm SOL. People that were/are paying for unlimited don't need to have music and video streams not count against them but it seems like we are the ones paying for the lower tiers to use more data (or rather not use up more data in their plan) now :p. The price increase sucks :(. If they wanted to stream so dang much, they should have paid for unlimited. Now people who had unlimited for video are going to move to cheaper tiers and T-Mobile is just going to raise the unlimited plan's prices even more. Yay! :( /rant

Exactly. Like I said, only a matter of time. No company is ever this "nice" without something happening along the line. Someone's got to pay. Free data is never really free these days. To me going from $80 to $95 is quite the price hike for something that didn't ever seem to be a problem before. So why the raise? What happened? Greed perhaps? Because it's still the cheapest and people will pay? Hmmm...
 
Remember...AT&T and Verizon didn't start out as greedy not-giving-a-fuck type companies.
Are you just saying this as a catchphrase? Because both AT&T and Verizon started out as greedy companies.

AT&T was literally the outgrowth of a monopoly that existed for as long as telephones and then bought by one of the subsidiaries that resulted from the feds breaking up the monopoly...how can anyone say it didn't start out as a greedy company :rolleyes:
 
All while they increase the price for the unlimited plan from $80 to $95(!) dollars.

It'll only be a matter of time before T-Mobile becomes another Verizon and AT&T...mark my words on that. Prices will slowly increase and services will slowly be drawn back.

Remember...AT&T and Verizon didn't start out as greedy not-giving-a-fuck type companies.

So which competitor are you CEO of? :D

Sounds like you have sand in your vagina.
 
Are you just saying this as a catchphrase? Because both AT&T and Verizon started out as greedy companies.

AT&T was literally the outgrowth of a monopoly that existed for as long as telephones and then bought by one of the subsidiaries that resulted from the feds breaking up the monopoly...how can anyone say it didn't start out as a greedy company :rolleyes:

Verizon then? And my point being is that anyone can change. Nothing is ever set in stone, especially big corporations.

So which competitor are you CEO of? :D

Sounds like you have sand in your vagina.

Nope, I'm a T-Mobile customer now. Let's not act though like a $15 price hike on something that didn't seem like a problem before isn't a pretty big jump. Certain doesn't instill confidence.
 
Meanwhile the only streaming service I use (Amazon Prime Video) isn't included :(
 
Verizon then? And my point being is that anyone can change. Nothing is ever set in stone, especially big corporations.



Nope, I'm a T-Mobile customer now. Let's not act though like a $15 price hike on something that didn't seem like a problem before isn't a pretty big jump. Certain doesn't instill confidence.

I was totally kidding. Should have been more specific.
 
Trust me. I work for T-Mobile. You do not have to request the data plan update. It will be automatic on the simple choice plans just like when we changed the 500mb to 1gb.
Oops I was wrong about this.. Existing customers do have to change to the new plans to get the new data limits.
 
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