Apple Music's Video Content Now Streams Free on T-Mobile

Legere is ridiculously passionate and so full of energy. He is T-Mobile; well, in the US, at least.

Frequent livestreams such as 'Slow Cooker Sundays' and always wears TMob branding/clothing every single day. You can see he's really encouraged so much customer and employee loyalty too. He always visits the troops on the ground. Most of his social media updates are followed by a sea of employees saying how proud they are to work for TMob.

A phone carrier is beginning to get an Apple-like cult following. That's like cheering on your favourite electricity company. A phone carrier can be cool and appeal to youngsters. This would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

Like him or not, he's a stunningly great CEO to already achieve what he has done.

Here is the question. If you can now stream pretty much all video and music for free and all text and phone calls are free, is it possible to dump your ISP and do everything via a tMobile account? For example can I my apple TV and ipad at home through a tmobile iphone? I currently burn through about 130 gig a month through my ISP, but most of that is music and video. So, if tmob does not cap the binge on feature, this could actually give me a good alternative.

Via http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/binge-on-streaming-video.html:
"You still benefit with Binge On! When Binge On is enabled, you’ll get all the benefits of unlimited video streaming on your smartphone and when you use your phone as a mobile hotspot you can stream YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Sling, ESPN, Showtime, Starz and other participating services for free, without counting against your smartphone mobile hotspot."

Dislike. This goes against the principles of net neutrality. Sure it's awesome now that we're on MacRumors and this is positively affecting Apple Music, but next time it'll give another company you like disadvantages with the telco entering deals to make it cheaper to use a competitor.

In the worst case, it can completely kill off smaller actors in the market that may even be better choices if they were competing on fair grounds. No thanks.

But it doesn't negatively affect those who are already using services that aren't whitelisted; nothing is different for these users, so they aren't affected in any way.

Dislike. This goes against the principles of net neutrality. Sure it's awesome now that we're on MacRumors and this is positively affecting Apple Music, but next time it'll give another company you like disadvantages with the telco entering deals to make it cheaper to use a competitor.

In the worst case, it can completely kill off smaller actors in the market that may even be better choices if they were competing on fair grounds. No thanks.

The list of free video streaming partners are now so vast that it has become harder to name one that isn't free. I think that in itself speaks volumes about net neutrality.

Well, if I really try, there are some glaring omissions (source: App Store's top video streaming categories):
[LIST=1]
* AMC
* Apple iTunes (rental)
* BET
* Cartoon Network
* CBS
* CMT
* CNN
* CW
* E!
* Food Network
* Golf
* HGTV
* IFC
* MLS
* MTV
* PGA
* Rugby
* Smithsonian
* Syfy
* TBS
* TNT
* Twitch
* UFC
* VH1
* Viceland
* Vimeo
* Xfinity

Regarding never ending net neutrality discussion, yes, T-Mobile is technically in violation of net neutrality principle. But practically speaking, is T-Mobile harming those that are not participating in Binge On partnership?

It is a complicated question to answer, largely because:

* T-Mobile is not a dominant carrier. If AT&T or Verizon offered a similar feature, it would be a lot more controversial.
* The participation is open to any video streaming service that provides legal contents with 1.5 Mbps throttled stream.
* T-Mobile is not charging customer nor partners for this feature.
* Customers can opt out with T-Mobile app, website, or SMS (although I doubt anyone but those on unlimited do).
* This benefit requires customers be on 3GB or higher (in practice, 6GB or higher as 3GB is no longer offered) plan. T-Mobile's 6GB plan is quite generous, with 20GB data rollover and many zero rated services (most music streaming and App Store downloads do not count toward data usage). In effect, most customers on 6GB plan probably do not worry about how much data they use regardless of whether video service is Binge On partner or not.

But it doesn't negatively affect those who are already using services that aren't whitelisted; nothing is different for these users, so they aren't affected in any way.

I think the main argument is that it's a slippery slope. Charging extra to access select services or specifically not charging the usual to access select services is a distinction without a difference, in the end net result in the same in both scenarios, which is that two competing services are being treated differently by the infrastructure that delivers them.

Right now T-Mobile seems to be "self-regulating" by letting any service into the Binge-On program, but the terms and application process aren't really clear. Further, T-Mobile can change their mind on a whim.

For example, what if John Legere one day happens to take a 1% interest in Spotify, and decides that Apple Music and YouTube Red are no longer part of the Binge-On program, and incidentally sees the value of his shares go up? The precedent he is setting today would allow for that tomorrow.

As another example, would you be ok with you if the electricity company says that electricity used by GE refrigerators is now free, but every other brand refrigerator is at the usual rate? Would it still be ok if it meant that your electricity company got a contract to buy a whole bunch of GE industrial transformers at below-market cost in order to do the refrigerator promotion? And you have a Kenmore refrigerator at the moment...

What a character he is, I bet his mobile number ends in 420 :)

Sweet

Yep he seems like a really good bloke - kind of like our Richard Branson actually.

So Apple is no longer for net neutrality?

Via http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/binge-on-streaming-video.html:
"You still benefit with Binge On! When Binge On is enabled, you’ll get all the benefits of unlimited video streaming on your smartphone and when you use your phone as a mobile hotspot you can stream YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Sling, ESPN, Showtime, Starz and other participating services for free, without counting against your smartphone mobile hotspot."

Yes I understand, but in the fine print it also states the following

Once full-speed data allotment is reached, all usage slowed to up to 2G speeds until end of bill cycle.....Network Management: Service may be slowed, suspended, terminated, or restricted for misuse, abnormal use, interference with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users, or significant roaming. Customers who use an extremely high amount of data in a bill cycle will have their data usage de-prioritized compared to other customers for that bill cycle at locations and times when competing network demands occur, resulting in relatively slower speeds.

I did a little more digging and found this --

To provide the best possible experience for the most possible customers, and to minimize capacity issues and degradation in network performance, we manage significant high-speed data usage through prioritization. Specifically, customers who use more data than what 97% of all customers use in a month, based on recent historical averages (updated quarterly), will have their data usage de-prioritized compared to the data usage of other customers at times and at locations where there are competing customer demands for network resources, which may result in slower data speeds. Customers who use data in violation of their Rate Plan terms or T-Mobile's Terms and Conditions may be excluded from this calculation. Data features that may not count against the high-speed data allotment for some plans, such as certain data associated with Music Freedom, or Binge On, still counts towards all customers’ usage for this calculation. Data used for customer service applications such as the T-Mobile My Account app and the T-Mobile Tuesdays app do not count towards customers’ usage for this calculation. Smartphone Mobile HotSpot (tethering) data is also included in this calculation. Based on network statistics for the most recent quarter, customers who use more than 26GB of data during a billing cycle will be de-prioritized for the remainder of the billing cycle in times and at locations where there are competing customer demands for network resources. At the start of the next bill cycle, the customer’s usage status is reset, and this data traffic is no longer de-prioritized.

So, even with Binge On, you basically have a cap at 26gig. Which is about 20% of what I use, so this does not work to replace my ISP. I have answered my own question. But it's not the answer I wanted.:(