On 23 November 2015 at 20:05, Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com> wrote:
On Nov 23, 2015, at 17:28 , Baldur Norddahl <baldur.norddahl@gmail.com> wrote:
On 24 November 2015 at 00:22, Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com> wrote:
Are there a significant number (ANY?) streaming video providers using UDP to deliver their streams?
What else could we have that is UDP based? Ah voice calls. Video calls. Stuff that requires low latency and where TCP retransmit of stale data is bad. Media without buffering because it is real time.
And why would a telco want to zero rate all the bandwidth heavy media with certain exceptions? Like not zero rating media that happens to compete with some of their own services, such as voice calls and video calls.
Yes sounds like net neutrality to me too (or not!).
Regards,
Baldur
All T-Mobile plans include unlimited 128kbps data, so a voice call is effectively already zero-rated for all practical purposes.
I guess the question is: Is it better for the consumer to pay for everything equally, or, is it reasonable for carriers to be able to give away some free data without opening it up to everything?
To me, net neutrality isn’t as much about what you charge the customer for the data, it’s about whether you prioritize certain classes of traffic to the detriment of others in terms of service delivery.
This is where I believe the issue comes up with BingeOn that didn't manifest with Music Freedom — with the earlier Music Freedom promotion, they've started offering unlimited music streaming with select providers. As Owen rightly points out, since most T-Mo plans already include unlimited 128kbps, Music Freedom is basically just a wash, and is much more about T-Mo's own marketing than about traffic management. *** With or without Music Freedom, you can already stream unlimited music from any provider, even if you're tethered or use a VPN, or both! *** (Yes, if you do use select providers, you also get to use your 4G bucket allocation in full, whereas otherwise, it may get "wasted" on 128kbps streaming; not ideal, but a relatively minor detail in the grand scheme of things.) But BingeOn is very different: I use a VPN. I set my Netflix player to 480p. I quit all other traffic. Oops, since I've already watched too much porn (somehow none of which is zero rated for BingeOn, even if you're not using a VPN; isn't that a first red flag about their scheme right there?), and my high-speed allocation is all up, so, my player doesn't work at all (Netflix officially requires 512kbps minimum, 128kbps clearly won't work). I disable VPN (which they limit to 128kbps as per above), and suddenly Netflix starts working just fine, since it now gets 1.5Mbps (or thereabouts), and 480p works just fine, even if you're tethered. But yet my porn still doesn't work, even without a VPN! *** How is this not the very definition of fast vs. slow lanes, if one set of traffic gets a permanent 1,5Mbps high-speed treatment, whereas another set of traffic is limited to a slow 128kbps (or effectively 0kbps for video, since it won't stream at all) past the high-speed allocation? *** I think what T-Mobile US ought to do is increase the throttling limits for all — 128kbps was basically set in stone when we still didn't have any LTE; it takes more than a minute to load any "modern" website or use any app at such speed nowadays, if things don't just timeout at all in the first place. If MVNO companies like http://yourKarma.com/ can offer United-States-nationwide unlimited 5Mbps LTE WiFi hotspots for 50$/mo all-in, T-Mobile US surely ought to be capable of raising the throttling limit, (1), to 256kbps or even 512kbps on all unlimited plans (30$+), and, (2), to 1,5Mbps on BingeOn plans (65$+?). P.S. And a Verizon MVNO http://RokMobile.com/ offers 256kbps throttling past their 5GB@50$ bucket, so, likewise, 128kbps from T-Mobile is a bit too slow nowadays. P.P.S. Did anyone notice that Iliad SA, the company that bid for T-Mo last year, now offers 50GB of 4G Internet for 19,99 EUR/mo in France, including free long-distance to Alaska and China, and free roaming all across Europe? (Speeds reduced in excess of 50GB.) http://www.iliad.fr/presse/2015/CP_010915_Eng.pdf http://mobile.free.fr/ Wait, not even 19,99 EUR, but 15,99 EUR if you bundle! P.P.P.S. So, did anyone actually file a net neutrality complaint with the FCC?
If T-Mobile were taking money from the video streaming services or only accepting certain video streaming services, I’d likely agree with you that this is a neutrality issue.
So, why have they not accepted a single porn site yet?
However, in this case, it appears to me that they aren’t trying to give an advantage to any particular competing streaming video service over the other, they aren’t taking money from participants in the program, and consumers stand to benefit from it.
One way or the other, they've so far excluded the whole industry, which the internet is really-really great for.
If you see an actual way in which it’s better for everyone if T-Mobile weren’t doing this, then please explain it. If not, then this strikes me as harmless and overall benefits consumers.
Explained above. Otherwise, one can deduce that any zero rating almost always benefits consumers on average and especially in the short term.
Owen
Cheers, Constantine.