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It's a great time to be an American - at least, it's a great time if you're in charge of a huge telecommunications corporation and you've been sweating some of your anti-net neutrality practices. With the election of Donald Trump and a new chairman appointed at the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC's position on zero-rating policies like T-Mobile's Binge On data services, AT&T's free access to DirecTV Now, and Verizon's free NFL game streaming, has shifted. The Commission is no longer investigating these policies for any reason, according to briefs issued by newly-appointed chairman Ajit Pai.
T-Mobile's Binge On program has become extremely popular, despite its disadvantages. If you're not familiar, Binge On doesn't charge you for data used by certain video and audio streaming sites, but with video quality capped to about 480p. AT&T today announced Stream Saver, which sounds like the company's response to Binge On.
T-Mobile's Binge On unlimited streaming feature was controversial when it first launched, but the carrier quickly added toggles to turn it on and off. That seems to have quelled the uprising, allowing the data-conscious to enjoy all those free bits. Today, T-Mobile has announced that Binge On supports more than 100 streaming partners.
T-Mobile's unlimited video streaming option lets customers get all the content they want without burning through their data. This sounds like a win-win, but Binge On has received push back for concerns over net neutrality and limiting the quality of video streams. By this point, you know what you're getting, and you probably either love it or hate it.
Despite some technical objections, T-Mobile's unlimited video streaming option Binge On has proven to be a hit with the company's customers, just as the audio equivalent Music Freedom was before it. With these two programs, T-Mobile customers aren't charged against their data caps for watching or listening on participating services. Today Binge On expands to a few new services, and existing Music Freedom services are adding at least some video content to Binge On.
In my tiny little corner of the world, we get very few perks with any of our mobile plans. No unlimited calls, no unlimited texts, and lots of limited data. That hasn't stopped an enterprising local music service from convincing carriers to offer an unlimited streaming plan only on their app for a small fee. That goes to show that people may not care about calls or texts anymore, but there's always room for offers when it comes to entertainment.
T-Mobile likes to talk up Binge On whenever it adds new partners, as it did the other day with the addition of YouTube. One thing Legere and company neglected to mention is that Binge On now has its first adult partner. I don't mean "adult" like paying bills and other boring grown up responsibilities; I mean porn. Binge On now includes unmetered porn streaming via MiKandi.
One of the loudest voices of criticism when T-Mobile launched Binge On was none other than Google, but it would appear the two companies have patched things up. T-Mobile just announced a big expansion of Binge On support, and among the new options are both YouTube and Google Play Movies.
T-Mobile has been busy defending Binge On since it launched, but it's still aggressively expanding the service. T-Mobile subscribers on qualifying plans can now get unlimited streaming data from more providers (over 40 now), and managing Binge On is now possible with dialer shortcodes. The carrier is also taking this opportunity to tell us again how much more video people are watching with Binge On.
John Legere Apparently Thinks If He Explains Binge On To You One More Time You'll Agree It's Awesome
Okay, dummy. John Legere has been explaining Binge On to you for days, and you still don't agree with him that it's the best thing since sliced bread? Well, he's just going to tell you about Binge On again using the exact same words he's been using so far. These words are available on the T-Mobile newsroom site, where he can carefully craft an expletive-free message and apologize to the EFF.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere gets away with the bombastic attitude and casual swearing largely because people like what T-Mobile has been doing. However, it looks like John might have miscalculated with Binge On. Following the video defense he posted earlier today, Legere started doing an impromptu Q&A on Twitter. He made the mistake of asking, "Who the fuck are you?" of the EFF. Now, the internet is letting him know.
In a video released today, John Legere - CEO of a publicly-traded wireless carrier and, apparently, your sort of out-of-touch uncle - accused Google, a $517 billion search company, of attacking T-Mobile's Binge On service in order to "get into the news." As to what Google's end in such an endeavor might be, well: John just doesn't know. It's shadowy, it's dark! They have an agenda.
At T-Mobile's Uncarrier X press event in Los Angeles this morning, America's most disruptive wireless provider announced yet another set of lucrative bonuses for T-Mobile customers. First, all Simple Choice plans are having their data doubled. 1GB is now 2GB, 3GB is now 6GB, and 5GB is now 10GB. Unlimited customers will also see their 7GB hotspot data double to 14GB.