Summary
Despite concerns by net neutrality advocates, T-Mobile’s Binge On program continues to expand, the company today announcing that more than 90 video services now don’t count against the company’s usage caps. In an announcement, T-Mobile stated that Azubu, Dailymotion Games, Eyegroove, PBS, and PBS KIDS have joined Binge On. While Binge On is enabled, white-listed video services won’t count against your cap, but video quality will be limited to 1.5 Mbps and around 480p.
T-Mobile claims that under Binge On, T-Mobile customers have streamed more than 500 million hours of video without using their high-speed data allotments. The “uncarrier” also claims its customers are watching up to 2x more from participating providers that stream free on limited data plans.
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Controversy has followed T-Mobile’s Binge On since launch, with many, including Stanford lawyer Barbara van Schewick, stating that the program violates net neutrality.
“A core principle of net neutrality is that ISPs should not pick winners and losers online by favoring some applications over others,” stated van Schewick. “But that’s exactly what Binge On does. Customers have a greater incentive to watch videos that are included in Binge On than those that are excluded. As a result, providers in the program can be more successful than providers that T-Mobile leaves out.”
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