In return for zero rating the video data for the video providers in the BingeOn program, they agree to serve video with a fixed highest bitrate, which saves on tower spectrum (which is far more important than whatever bandwidth consumption T-Mobile is experiencing at its peering points).
This makes sense. If you're a consumer who doesn't care about the bitrate being limited (assuming the highest bitrate is based on mobile device screen resolution), its not a problem. You get decent video quality on your device, T-Mobile doesn't have to work as hard at network management. If you want to opt out for whatever reason, there is a toggle switch to do so.
Its a clever solution to limited last-mile mobile connectivity.
Why do you keep providing in-accurate descriptions of Binge On and deliberately exclude the throttling that is central to both the current debate and T-mobile's claims of "UP TO 3X MORE VIDEO from your data plan"?
The opted-in throttling is especially dangerous for innovation on the internet because in one swoop it increases the difficulty of starting any service that depends on displaying high definition video on mobile. Not all high definition video is entertainment, so T-mobile has no way of knowing if 'incredibly high resolution rates that are barely detectable by the human eye' are needed or not.
> Its a clever solution to limited last-mile mobile connectivity.
No, it's a slipshod and disingenuous solution to the limited last-mile mobile connectivity that violates Net Neutrality in two different ways: Zero Rating and content specific Throttling.
The value of Net Neutrality is open for debate, but T-Mobile is now flat out lying about their support of it:
> T-Mobile is a company that absolutely supports Net Neutrality and we believe in an open and free Internet.
If T-mobile wanted to solve this problem while respecting Net Neutrality, they could have worked with content networks and other carriers to develop an open standard for marking video stream network data as amendable to throttling.
In return for zero rating the video data for the video providers in the BingeOn program, they agree to serve video with a fixed highest bitrate, which saves on tower spectrum (which is far more important than whatever bandwidth consumption T-Mobile is experiencing at its peering points).
This makes sense. If you're a consumer who doesn't care about the bitrate being limited (assuming the highest bitrate is based on mobile device screen resolution), its not a problem. You get decent video quality on your device, T-Mobile doesn't have to work as hard at network management. If you want to opt out for whatever reason, there is a toggle switch to do so.
Its a clever solution to limited last-mile mobile connectivity.