YouTube says T-Mobile’s net neutrality-bending Binge On scheme throttles its

It’s exactly what Net Neutrality and consumer advocates feared when T-Mobile introduced Binge On, the carrier’s latest Un-carrier scheme that allows customers to stream select video services – at lower 480p quality, mind you – in exchange for waiving the associated data costs on their monthly plan. YouTube went on to tell the Wall Street Journal that T-Mo is degrading its traffic and lowering the quality of video that isn’t included with the free Binge On streaming.

YouTube believes that because it is not included in the Binge On service, its video traffic should not be throttled or degraded because users have not consented to have YouTube streams throttled like they have for services such as Hulu and HBO.

For the uninitiated, Binge On works like this: according to T-Mobile, as long as a video service meets certain “technical requirements”, it can enter into Binge On.

Last week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the agency sent letters to T-Mobile, Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc.to get more information about new services they are offering.

T-Mobile was fairly evasive in response to YouTube’s accusations and would only say that its customers “love having free streaming video that never hits their data bucket” and like “both the quality of their video experience and the complete control they have”. Although the commission initially praised Binge On, it is now asking T-Mobile to respond to criticisms, which include making the feature opt-out instead of opt-in and not informing users of the choice they have. T-Mobile apparently didn’t much feel like commenting on Google’s complaints, outside of lauding itself for its Binge On program: quote:T-Mobile declined to address YouTube’s complaints.

It’s not clear whether YouTube has spoken with the FCC about the issue. The beauty of a network that is simply a series of “dumb pipes” is that it will give you the content that you request without prioritizing it or any other content – it’s a simple transaction of requesting and receiving. YouTube videos thus still count against data caps, but YouTube isn’t exempt from the throttling.