From the Ars-ticle:
T-Mobile USA's controversial "Binge On" program is throttling all HTML5 video streams and direct video downloads to about 1.5Mbps, according to tests run by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
Binge On, unveiled in November, is enabled by default for all T-Mobile customers and downgrades video resolution to 480p in order to reduce data usage. Companies that cooperate with T-Mobile can stream video without counting against customers' high-speed data limits. That means you can watch Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and about another 20 services without using up your data.
But all video is downgraded, regardless of whether it gets a data cap exemption, which has led to a rift between T-Mobile and Google's YouTube.
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The Federal Communications Commission says it has had "productive" discussions with Comcast and T-Mobile USA about whether data cap exemptions conflict with the goals of net neutrality.
The FCC sent letters last month asking Comcast, T-Mobile, and AT&T to meet with commission staff by January 15. The FCC has met with Comcast and T-Mobile, but not AT&T. A meeting with AT&T has been scheduled.
"FCC staff had productive discussions with company representatives as part of a larger policy examination of trends in the market. We cannot comment on the details of individual meetings," FCC spokesperson Kim Hart told Ars.
When asked if there will be any action taken against the companies, Hart said, "This is not an enforcement action or investigation, as the Chairman [Tom Wheeler] has made clear. Direct dialogue with companies is an important way in which the Commission can watch and learn, and consistent with our approach in the Open Internet Order."
Researchers at Northeastern University and the University of Southern California have published a paper (pdf) confirming findings by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that T-Mobile's "Binge On" scheme is simply throttling. The researchers also showed how the throttling lowered video quality while hurting the battery life of tested devices, due to the increased download times needed. But wait, there's more:
And they didn't stop there. They actually reverse-engineered the classifier T-Mobile uses to decide whether or not data should be zero-rated. In other words, they figured out exactly what parts of a data stream T-Mobile looks at to decide if a flow of packets should count against a customer's data cap or not, and which values triggered zero-rating. With that knowledge in hand, they also figured how to subvert the classifier into zero-rating any data—not just video streams.
There was one technical discrepancy between the researchers' findings and our findings from back in January. The researchers found that changing the "Content-Type" HTTP header from "video/mp4" to something else prevents T-Mobile from recognizing that a file is actually video, and thus causes Binge On not to throttle or zero-rate the file. Our test, on the other hand, showed that changing the file extension (and thus the Content-Type header) wasn't sufficient—T-Mobile still recognized the file as video and throttled it.
To figure out the source of the discrepancy, we ran our test again, and also provided a packet log of our test to the researchers. They confirmed our results, and also ran some different tests to explore further what was going on. Together, we realized that both of our results were correct. That's because in addition to matching against the "Content-Type" header, T-Mobile also scans the first response packet for the string "mp4." (This string was present in the video file we used for EFF's tests, since it's part of the headers of the file itself.) If either match is found, Binge On throttles the stream. Thus, our test with different headers did show throttling, since our file had the string "mp4" in it. And the researchers' test with different headers didn't show throttling, because the content payload in their test didn't include the magic string.
Previously: Why Free Services from Telecoms Can Be a Problem on the Internet
T-Mobile Throttles All Video Streams and Downloads to 1.5Mbps, EFF Says
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @06:28AM
if it weren't for those meddling freetards!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @06:40AM
YouTube supports HTTPS. I guess you need to enable it if you want to save more than DVD quality.
Ironically, doing that would prevent tmobile from caching popular videos. I guess at the same time, they would not be exempted from your data-cap.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Wednesday January 06 2016, @06:53AM
Such ignorance. Youtube is https by default. Youtube is not part of the "binge-on" program, so Youtube bandwidth always counted against your data cap. However, https streams from youtube are throttled by T-Mobile.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @06:57AM
One of the Ars comments addresses this:
Rosyna
Ars Praefectus
reply 14 days ago
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @06:54AM
Duh. T-mobile's site is very clera that this is what will happen if you turn on Binge On.. although they call it a feature to help preserve your data when coming from other sources. They say in the FAQ, as a workaround, you can toggle Binge On freely at any time* from the device, so if you want, turn it off, stream from YouTube, turn it on. Honestly, sounds fine to me, because I wouldn't want to burn data for HD YouTube.
I don't know why YouTube doesn't just join the Binge On group. It's free and they already meet the like 6 technical requirements. It would take like 1 man-month to fill out paperwork and everything.
*Unless you have an unlimited plan, because then they pay you stuff to turn on Binge On to save them money. You can still toggle it anytime you want, but it's not free cause then you don't get the whatever they give you. Free movies or something.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Tork on Wednesday January 06 2016, @06:58AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2016, @07:14AM
You mean the unlimited pipe? They laid out 6 requirements for video providers to get access. They all seem reasonable and technically required. Like the video uses a protocol that is identifiable as such, responsive to bandwidth restrictions, Tmobile is given advance notice before major changes so they can validate they still meet the requirements and a couple others.
Paying T-mobile is not a requirement.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday January 06 2016, @07:39AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdfest on Wednesday January 06 2016, @01:19PM
Yep. This is the "thin end of the wedge" for violating net neutrality. They shouldn't be treating content differently based on who "signs up" to their little club.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2016, @07:08PM
Wrong. The consumer can opt-out at any time. FUD
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday January 07 2016, @07:17PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday January 06 2016, @07:13AM
With my eyesight (distance glasses (more than 10'), regular reading glasses (2-10'), soldering glasses (6"-24")) I don't know if I could tell the difference between HD and SD on my tiny phone screen.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Wednesday January 06 2016, @04:46PM
You're assuming that video files downloaded through a mobile connection will be watched on a phone. What if I'm downloading the file onto my computer through a tethered connection, so I can watch it on a big screen? I don't know about you, but I often use a tether when I can't get a normal internet connection.
Leaving that aside, this is a blatant violation of the new FCC rules on net neutrality. If they're allowed to get away with it now, they'll keep trying to push the envelope. The Dude minds. This will not stand, man.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday January 06 2016, @02:52PM
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=11504&cid=285518 [soylentnews.org]
(posting top-level because of AC mod filtering)
One of the Ars comments addresses this:
As I explained in a previous comment, it means T-Mobile is slowing the connection down/throttling so you do not have enough bandwidth to get a stream that is better than 480p. So even if you have the capability of 20Mbs, T-Mobile is slowing connections to certain servers down to 1500Kbps (or whatever) so the only option you have is the 480p stream.
Remember, all streaming video services available for iOS are required to support adaptive bitrate streaming [wikipedia.org] so videos can be watched/streamed regardless of connection type. While this is an iOS requirement, it has made it into the video services on other platforms (it's just easier to implement that way).
T-Mobile is taking advantage of this when they throttle connections to known video services. Even if the service is encrypted, services typically use specific domains to serve video from. Those domains are not encrypted and are relatively easy to target.
Rosyna
Ars Praefectus
reply 14 days ago
Isn't this pretty much exactly what the ISPs were forbidden from doing by that Common Carrier ruling?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"