If you advertise something in a way that makes it appear to be a blatant net neutrality violation (free traffic for Netflix, pay for the rest), then well, people are going to think it's a blatant net neutrality violation.
In practice, BingeOn appears to be a program where you get free traffic if you agree to be throttled to 1.5Mbps. That is not a net neutrality violation at all. That's a perfectly sane product for an ISP to offer. They should have just skipped the Netflix and video rhetoric (and have it apply to all traffic, but that is really of little consequence).
> What Tmobile is doing isn't a challenge to the end.
Yes, it is a direct challenge to the free and open internet. It closes mobile internet towards a specific use (HD video) based on the decision of a third party who does not know if HD video is needed or desired. The high bitrate could be critical to the application in question (for example a medical video consultation, a collaborative image editing tool, or some as-yet un-invented use that may now never happen)
T-mobile could disrupt the mobile carrier market by pushing for open protocols by which the client or server can indicate that lower bitrate videos (or lower resolution images) are acceptable or preferred.
Not to mention the fact that each Carrier/MVNO requiring a startup to implement their specific technical requirements to be eligible for Zero Rating has a direct, negative impact on competition.
imagine you're Google or Netflix, you have auto adapting streaming, so your clients can see a video in real time at 1.5mbps, though low quality. now your competitor had only HD streaming because it is prepared for a market where everyone have 4G so it assumes 2mbps and up. now a isp just decided it's impossible to whatch real time video on that service, which may have been the reason i signed up for internet access in the first place!
In practice, BingeOn appears to be a program where you get free traffic if you agree to be throttled to 1.5Mbps. That is not a net neutrality violation at all. That's a perfectly sane product for an ISP to offer. They should have just skipped the Netflix and video rhetoric (and have it apply to all traffic, but that is really of little consequence).