
T-Mobile CEO Apologizes for “Offending” EFF and Its Supporters - cpncrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/11/t-mobile-ceo-apologizes-for-offending-eff-and-its-supporters/
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pyrophane
As an EFF supporter and conflicted T-mobile customer I'm glad he issued this
apology. No, it doesn't mean that he and the EFF are on the same page, but at
least he is acknowledging that they are an organization to work with rather
than dismiss outright.

I'm going to attempt to give him the benefit of the doubt and allow that he
may have been unfamiliar with the EFF and had suspected that they represented
primarily the interests of T-Mobile's competitors rather than individuals.

Also, I think that while Binge On was announced and promoted in a dishonest
way, there is room for people who agree on the importance of net neutrality to
disagree on whether such a program has a place on a neutral internet.

~~~
fossuser
I like him actually - his initial response paired with this strikes me as
authentic, that he really did think they were some interest group funded by
Verizon or something.

Unfortunate it was the EFF he thought this of, but his defense of binge on
seems well reasoned and isn't surrounded in the normal corporate speak that
usually comes from the CEO of a big company.

~~~
ChuckMcM
There has always been a risk with being "authentic" although some people can
pull it off. One of the things I've noticed about people fairly far up in
large organizations is that they have filled their brain with all the various
aspects of running that organization and have very little space for things
they don't normally interact with. I can completely believe he didn't even
know what EFF was beyond "something in the computer space" because it was
probably irrelevant information until the twitter bomb.

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sigmar
>no one at T-Mobile filters me either (no, they don’t even try).

They may not filter you, but I'm sure they pressured you to make this apology.

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bisRepetita
He does not like to be filtered, but he's OK filtering content...

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blhack
tl;dr - Sorry, not sorry.

Strangely, even a HUGE supporter of net neutrality, this doesn't bother me
very much. Maybe it's because to me, Netflix is SO big, that this looks very
similar to a peering agreement.

T-Mobile is just peering with netflix, and because of their agreement, will
route data between their networks for free.

Although that is probably the sheep's clothing that the destruction of the
open web will come dressed in.

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toomuchtodo
It's not about peering.

In return for zero rating the video data for the video providers in the
BingeOn program, they agree to serve video with a fixed highest bitrate, which
saves on tower spectrum (which is far more important than whatever bandwidth
consumption T-Mobile is experiencing at its peering points).

This makes sense. If you're a consumer who doesn't care about the bitrate
being limited (assuming the highest bitrate is based on mobile device screen
resolution), its not a problem. You get decent video quality on your device,
T-Mobile doesn't have to work as hard at network management. If you want to
opt out for whatever reason, there is a toggle switch to do so.

Its a clever solution to limited last-mile mobile connectivity.

~~~
shkkmo
Why do you keep providing in-accurate descriptions of Binge On and
deliberately exclude the throttling that is central to both the current debate
and T-mobile's claims of "UP TO 3X MORE VIDEO from your data plan"?

[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/eff-confirms-t-
mobiles...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/eff-confirms-t-mobiles-
bingeon-optimization-just-throttling-applies)

The opted-in throttling is especially dangerous for innovation on the internet
because in one swoop it increases the difficulty of starting any service that
depends on displaying high definition video on mobile. Not all high definition
video is entertainment, so T-mobile has no way of knowing if 'incredibly high
resolution rates that are barely detectable by the human eye' are needed or
not.

> Its a clever solution to limited last-mile mobile connectivity.

No, it's a slipshod and disingenuous solution to the limited last-mile mobile
connectivity that violates Net Neutrality in two different ways: Zero Rating
and content specific Throttling.

The value of Net Neutrality is open for debate, but T-Mobile is now flat out
lying about their support of it:

> T-Mobile is a company that absolutely supports Net Neutrality and we believe
> in an open and free Internet.

[https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/issues-insights-blog/open-
lett...](https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/issues-insights-blog/open-letter-to-
consumers-about-binge-on.htm)

If T-mobile wanted to solve this problem while respecting Net Neutrality, they
could have worked with content networks and other carriers to develop an open
standard for marking video stream network data as amendable to throttling.

~~~
5ilv3r
That was pretty looney right up to the last bit. That there, is a great idea.

Whatabouts a flag to indicate that throttling will gracefully degrade? QoS
tool's best friend?

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5ilv3r
I called tmobile, told them to turn binge-on off, that net neutrality is super
important for small business to be competitive, and that I was offended by
what their CEO said about the EFF. I also mentioned that they are normally
really good at listening to feedback...

Thanks, t-mo. I will continue to give you money instead of at&t.

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shmerl
That's the right thing to do (to apologize, not to defend Net Neutrality
violation of course). Let him go back to making fun of "the dumb and the
dumber", instead of attacking EFF ;)

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oniMaker
The comments in this thread evidence what a great ploy this was.

First, Outrageous CEO generates a mild uproar, irritating nerds, and
generating press. Irritated nerds tweet about T-Mobile, causing it to trend.
Bonus: everyone is branded for several minutes by the big pink T in the
background of the video.

Second, he issues the apology. TechCrunch article. Twitter. More press for
T-Mobile and Binge On. Everyone opines on the matter as if any part of it is
meaningful.

Next, he'll meet with the EFF and make a pledge to support them. More chatter,
more branding, and now some goodwill to boot.

Net result: Everyone is talking about T-Mobile instead of their competitors.

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horsecaptin
I wonder if he made a video apology and released it on Twitter for all his
followers to watch.

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jonknee
He did link the letter:

[https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/686669027679141889](https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/686669027679141889)

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joshkpeterson
This issue aside, it's always okay to scrutinize the intentions and funding
sources of organizations. The EFF once tried to work with big tobacco.

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a-b
He admitted "I am a vocal, animated and sometimes foul mouthed CEO" so how can
we trust his words about support and shared goals? He can proof something by
making significant donation say 1MM to EFF
[https://www.eff.org/about/contact](https://www.eff.org/about/contact)

~~~
placeybordeaux
Thats an insane requirement.

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AnkhMorporkian
You were very insensitive to a-b. You can prove you're sorry by donating say 1
000 000 USD to me.

~~~
a-b
if I would be a face on national telecom operator and you non-profit
organisation representing interests of significant part of my userbase I would
consider this.

~~~
placeybordeaux
Well it's a good thing you aren't. Thats a bad idea.

