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Comment by tshtf | Hacker News Reader

Ideally Binge On would only apply to the supported video providers, rather than throttling all video. However, there are rather three imperfect approaches to the problem:

1) Hacker's approach: Route all mobile traffic through a VPS/VPN using an OpenVPN client, available on all relevant mobile platforms. This way your mobile provider only sees VPN traffic. This will also bypass HTTP header injection used by Verizon and AT&T for third-party tracking. You won't get the free bandwidth from Binge On, but at least your provider won't be watching your traffic.

2) Active customer approach: Turn off Binge on. The problem here is that the customer won't be able to take advantage of the free video streaming provided by Binge On.

3) Regulatory approach: Have the FCC enforce net neutrality.

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(1) and (2) seem equivalent from the perspective of bypassing "Binge On"; (1) has the general benefit of encrypting all traffic, but no special benefit with respect to this particular service.

Also: (4) Switch cell carriers. Unlike localities that lack multiple local ISPs, cell carriers have extensive competition available to choose from.

> (4) Switch cell carriers

Do that, and end up with metered bandwidth for more money.

T-Mobile gets a pass from me because they have unlimited bandwidth and better prices. If that's what they need to do to make it happen, I'm all for it.

Maybe you are unaware or treated better than I was. I left T-Mobile when I discovered their definition of 'unlimited' meant that after using 10GB, your connection becomes throttled to around 250kbps for the rest of the month.

No, they have a genuine unlimited plan (for on-device data) these days. The only exception is if you are connected to a congested tower and have used more than 21 GBs your traffic will be de-prioritized (which in practice means under 100 kbps throughput).

News to me; their "unlimited 4G" plan is supposed to provide unlimited 4G, not limited 4G and unlimited low-speed data.

Does making it optional remove #3?

It is optional. It's just opt-out instead of opt-in.

I opted out as soon as I could. I'm on unlimited so it doesn't make sense for me.

Never attribute to malice and all that... but it's rather unfortunate that they silently opted-in customers with unlimited plans who don't really get and benefits

Well, it's one way to mitigate the tragedy of the commons. You don't get much direct benefit from YOUR bandwidth use being reduced, but you do get benefit from everyone else's bandwidth use being reduced.

I hope so. T-Mobile is trying to provide their customers value that other carriers don't provide.

I very much doubt this is about 'providing value'. This gives them the general benefits of throttling users on the heaviest form of data use, with PR spun around to sound like a feature.

Binge On takes $45/month worth of data usage and gives it to me for $0 if I'm OK with throttling video to 1.5mbps. That's money in my pocket, and makes my phone more enjoyable to use. That's a feature providing huge value, not PR spin.

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