New report confirms T-Mobile program throttles all video

T-Mobile’s Binge On program throttles – or reduces the quality of – all video traffic, according to a new study by Northeastern University researchers. Under T-Mobile’s Binge On program, streaming from certain video services like YouTube does not count toward one’s data caps. The result has been an explosion in video traffic on T-Mobile’s network, straining network capacity.

An earlier report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) found that T-Mobile’s response to capacity constraints was to reduce the quality of its video streaming on its network. This new report confirms the EFF’s finding: T-Mobile throttles all video traffic, whether or not the streaming service participates in the Binge On Program.

Does this violate net neutrality? The university researchers note that the way in which the Binge On differentiates treatment of video services – charging for some but not others – “calls into question the policy’s legality in the face of the FCC’s Open Internet Order.” The FCC is currently investigating wireless carriers’ zero-rating plans.

Links:

BingeOn Under the Microscope: Understanding T-Mobile’s Zero-Rating Implementation (David Choffnes, June 17, 2016)

T-Mobile throttles all video, misleads customers—again (Speed Matters, Jan. 4, 2016)

T-Mobile loses its dust-up with digital rights advocate EFF (Speed Matters, Jan. 13, 2016)