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Binge On is the latest uncarrier move from T-Mobile. One that is designed to lighten the data load on your video consumption by listing video content watched as not applicable for data charges. A process known as ‘zero rating’. However, since the launch of the service, Binge On has come under increasing fire from the media and various organizations. The most high profile of which, was a report which emerged from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and accused T-Mobile’s Binge On of throttling video. A report which resulted in a few choice words from T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere in return. What was even more concerning though, was the accusations that T-Mobile seem to be throttling all video content, regardless of whether it is part of the Binge On program or not.
A study which emerged from P3 on Friday looked to provide a more detailed level of insight into how adoption of the service is panning out since its launch. The big headline aspect is that it would seem T-Mobile customers are taking to Binge On and regardless of the criticism. In the summary of the study, one of the main conclusions drawn from P3 is that customers are using video apps “more often and longer” suggesting that the use of data-free video is appealing to the T-Mobile user-base regardless of the additional criticisms. However, in the same summing up, P3 also does make it clear that their findings also reiterate previous reports that T-Mobile is reducing video content during transmission. As such, the overall conclusion is that more customers are using the service and T-Mobile is not seeing an increase in the load on their servers than they were before, which is largely due to the reduction in transmission.
In terms of the actual study, P3 pulled crowdsourced data from over 1000 T-Mobile smartphones of customers who agreed to partake in the data collection study through the use of a downloaded app designed for the purpose. The use of the trial spanned the six weeks before and the six weeks following the November 15th launch of the service. Those interested in reading the findings in full, including in more detail of how they came to their conclusions, can do so by heading through the link below.
