YouTube slams T-Mobile for throttling online video traffic


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Joseph O'Halloran

| 28 December 2015




Online video juggernaut YouTube has condemned T-Mobile US for allegedly throttling its service on the telco’s network because of its Binge On zero-rating steaming offer.



Such services are designed to promote the use of mobile video by offering popular content packages exempt from operators’ data packages. They have been one of the most the most popular trends in 2015.

Launched in November 2015, BingeOn, allows customers who are also subscribers of Crackle, DirecTV, Fox Sports, Fox Sports, GO HBO, Hulu, Netflix, SHOWTIME, Sling TV, STARZ, Univision Deportes, WatchESPN, Vevo, VUDU and others to access those services on-the-go without touching their data caps. In a move designed to throw down the competitive gauntlet, T-Mobile also included Verizon's Go90 and AT&T's DirecTV/Sling TV streaming services in Binge On.

In practice the service works by showing such services at lower than normal quality, yet even with this cap in place, YouTube has accused T-Mobile — pointedly not part of BingeOn — of throttling its own, competitive offer. Speaking to financial news service Fortune, a YouTube spokesperson said: “Reducing data charges can be good for users [but] the practice does not justify throttling all video services, especially without explicit user consent.”

No complaint to US video regulator the FCC has been made to date but it is apparently monitoring the situation and is seeking more detail on zero-rating. Commenting on the situation, Michael Beckerman, CEO of the US Internet Association President, a trade body representing the country’s America’s leading Internet companies and their global community of users. said: “T-Mobile’s new streaming optimisation programme appears to involve throttling of all video traffic, across all data plans, regardless of network congestion. The Internet Association applauds the FCC for seeking information on this practice and its potential harm on consumers and online applications and services ... Reducing data charges for entire classes of applications can be legitimate and benefit consumers, so long as clear notice and choice is provided to service providers and consumers. However, a reasonably designed zero-rating program does not include the throttling of traffic for services or consumers that do not participate. We encourage the FCC to keep examining the details of these practices by Internet access providers.”