T-Mobile Is Flat Out Lying: It's Throttling Video Even Though It Says It's Not

from the that's-not-true dept

Big companies often have a way of tap dancing around the truth. It’s rarely lying, because they will choose their words carefully, in a manner that clearly misleads or distorts, but is not necessarily outright lying. T-Mobile, however, appears to be flat out lying. We recently wrote about the charges from YouTube that T-Mobile was throttling YouTube videos as part of its Binge On program that zero rates video on mobile phones so it doesn’t count against data caps. We noted the problems with this program when it launched, but YouTube’s claims take it even further.

Again, the program supposedly “optimizes” video streams down to a lower resolution, with the promise that partner videos will not count against T-Mobile’s data caps. However, YouTube pointed out that it is not a partner and its videos were being throttled, in clear violation of the clear “no throttling” rules from the FCC. T-Mobile took exception to my post about it and demanded corrections and clarifications, making a few different claims. After investigating the claims, I can say (1) that we will not be clarifying or correcting anything in the original post and (2) more importantly, it appears that T-Mobile is flat out lying in some of its claims. It’s not dancing around the truth, it is claiming things that are simply untrue. This is the key claim that T-Mobile’s PR person made to me:

Using the term ?throttle? is misleading. We aren?t slowing down YouTube or any other site. In fact, because video is optimized for mobile devices, streaming from these sites should be just as fast, if not faster than before. A better phrase is ?mobile optimized? or ?lower resolution.?

This is clearly not true. While you can have a semantic debate about whether “throttling” is “optimizing,” the facts with T-Mobile are pretty clear: it is NOT optimizing YouTube videos at all. It is 100% throttling them.

When Binge On first launched without YouTube as a partner, many people asked why, and T-Mobile’s VP of Engineering, Grant Castle, explained that the reason was because it could not identify YouTube videos, since nearly all YouTube traffic is encrypted. Thus, T-Mobile admitted that it had no way to “optimize” YouTube videos:

T-Mobile says the problem is technical. The software it is using to deliver streaming video at lower-definition quality needs to be able to identify the incoming traffic as being video as opposed to, say, photographs or email. It can?t always do that with YouTube.

Most YouTube traffic uses a protocol called HTTPS, which T-Mobile can detect, but some portions may be using a less-used protocol called UDP that the wireless company has more difficulty reading, according to Grant Castle, vice president of engineering at T-Mobile. That means the carrier isn?t certain about the format of some streams coming from YouTube.

?YouTube is a little difficult,? said Mr. Castle.

Thus, the only thing that T-Mobile can do for many YouTube encrypted streams is not to “optimize” it at all, but to flat out throttle it down to speeds around 1.5 mbps. You can see this in the tests done by Dualsim.us and the following video.

Remember how T-Mobile in their message to me said that the “optimized” videos should show up “just as fast, if not faster than before.” Yeah, that’s bullshit. Watch the video below (I start the video about 5 minutes in — the first five minutes mostly just show that the two phones are both on T-Mobile’s unlimited network with similar speed connections — at which point the video comparison is shown):

As you can see, rather than “just as fast, if not faster than before,” what you see for the throttled — not “optimized” — video is, instead, something much slower. That’s because T-Mobile appears to downgrade the data flow from ~12 Mbps down to something like 1.4 or 1.5 Mbps.

That’s absolutely 100% throttling. There is no “optimization” going on because T-Mobile cannot optimize those videos, since they’re encrypted.

T-Mobile is lying. Flat out lying.

And… in a bit of perfect timing, just as I was completing this post, I see that EFF has published the results of its own technical tests of BingeOn, which also confirm that there is no “optimization” here — and got T-Mobile to admit it was lying. It’s purely throttling:

Our last finding is that T-Mobile?s video ?optimization? doesn?t actually alter or enhance the video stream for delivery to a mobile device over a mobile network in any way. This means T-Mobile?s ?optimization? consists entirely of throttling the video stream?s throughput down to 1.5Mbps. If the video is more than 480p and the server sending the video doesn?t have a way to reduce or adapt the bitrate of the video as it?s being streamed, the result is stuttering and uneven streaming?exactly the opposite of the experience T-Mobile claims their ?optimization? will have.

Given the difference between what T-Mobile implies they do and what we found, we contacted them to get clarification. They confirmed that they don?t do any actual optimization of video streams other than reducing the bandwidth allocated to them (and relying on the provider to notice, and adapt the bitrate accordingly).

In fact, the EFF study compared a hash of the download to a version that was on the server and found the files were identical (i.e., no “optimization” — just purely throttling). Again, this is the exact opposite of what T-Mobile’s PR person told me in demanding a correction. T-Mobile is lying.

EFF also discovered that T-Mobile’s earlier statement that it can’t detect encrypted video is also misleading, as the company now claims it can:

The second major finding in our tests is that T-Mobile is throttling video downloads even when the filename and HTTP headers (specifically the Content-Type) indicate the file is not a video file. We asked T-Mobile if this means they are looking deeper than TCP and HTTP headers, and identifying video streams by inspecting the content of their customers? communications, and they told us that they have solutions to detect video-specific protocols/patterns that do not involve the examination of actual content.

Finally, EFF realized that even if you’re just downloading the video (i.e., not streaming, but downloading for later viewing), you STILL get throttled:

The first result of our test confirms that when Binge On is enabled, T-Mobile throttles all HTML5 video streams to around 1.5Mps, even when the phone is capable of downloading at higher speeds, and regardless of whether or not the video provider enrolled in Binge On. This is the case whether the video is being streamed or being downloaded?which means that T-Mobile is artificially reducing the download speeds of customers with Binge On enabled, even if they?re downloading the video to watch later. It also means that videos are being throttled even if they?re being watched or downloaded to another device via a tethered connection.

A separate claim in the email from T-Mobile is more of the “tap dancing around the truth” variety. And it’s the claim that T-Mobile made it clear from the beginning that it would be doing this to non-partner videos as well. Here’s what the T-Mobile rep said in the email to me:

This is how Binge On has always worked. We said it from the stage, in press materials, on the web, and in customer notifications last month, and media covered it last month, as well.

This is extremely misleading. Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to among people who follow these issues had no idea that the “throttling” (not optimization) applied to non-partner videos. I, as a T-Mobile customer, also never received any such notice (though the PR person then forwarded me the “notification” email, so I guess technically I have now received it). Either way, I went back to look at the press release and T-Mobile’s own page about Binge-On to see about how clearly the company really revealed that it would also be throttling non-partner video. And the company was not at all clear about it.

In the press release (not surprisingly), T-Mobile focuses on all the Binge On partners. To realize that it’s also throttling other videos you have to carefully parse some confusing text buried in the 8th paragraph of the press release, which most people won’t even recognize. Here are paragraphs four through eight — with the relevant mention bolded (without that, you might miss it):

With Binge On, video now streams free for viewers and subscribers of Crackle, Encore, ESPN, Fox Sports, Fox Sports Go, HBO Now, HBO Go, Hulu, MLB, Movieplex, NBC Sports, Netflix, Sling TV, Sling Box, SHOWTIME, STARZ, T-Mobile TV, Univision Deportes, Ustream, Vessel, Vevo, VUDU?with more streaming services on the way?without ever touching their 4G LTE data on Simple Choice plans with extra data. T-Mobile is also including Verizon?s Go90 and AT&T?s DirecTV streaming services in Binge On, so even the Duopoly?s video services stream without fear of overages.

Binge On is open to any streaming video provider who meets the technical requirements, which are available online at www.t-mobile.com/bingeon. And it?s completely free for video streaming providers to join.

?With Binge On, no one pays?not the customers, not the video streaming services?and everyone wins,? said Legere.

Powered by new technology built in to T-Mobile?s network, Binge On optimizes video for mobile screens, minimizing data consumption while still delivering DVD or better quality (e.g. 480p or better). That means more reliable streaming for services that stream free with Binge On, and for almost all other video, it means T-Mobile Simple Choice customers can watch up to three times more video from their data plan. And, as always, T-Mobile has put customers in total control with a switch to activate or deactivate Binge On for each line in their My T-Mobile account. Binge On is all about customer choice.

So basically all of the press release is talking about how Binge On is about “free” video from partners, and then in the second half of a sentence, buried in the middle of a paragraph (eight paragraphs into the press release) is a tidbit about how “for all other videos” the bandwidth is downgraded (what T-Mobile falsely calls “optimized”). That is the farthest thing from being clear about what is happening.

Similarly, on the website for Binge On itself, this is far from clear. Most of the page goes on and on and on about how “you can stream all you want for FREE without using your data.” The clear implication is that video streaming doesn’t count against a datacap. Lower down it has the following:

What basically no one is going to realize is that the “Watch 3X more video” claim on the right is talking about non-partner video. They don’t actually say that. In fact, given how so much of the focus is on how the video doesn’t count against the data cap at all, the whole “3x more video” bit is actually kind of confusing, because they’re both saying you can watch “as much video as you want” on the left, and then on the right, saying you can now watch 3x as much video. They are not being clear at all about this.

It’s only if you go all the way to the bottom of the page and click to expand the first “question” about Binge On that it finally explains what this means:

I mean, it’s really, really buried. Here’s a screenshot of the whole page, showing you where this information is buried (and, remember, this is showing it to you after I’ve clicked the little “+” button to show more). Most people will miss it entirely: So, yeah: T-Mobile is flat out lying in claiming that it “optimizes” YouTube, and it’s being ridiculously misleading in arguing that it was abundantly clear about how Binge On would impact non-partner videos.

Now, the big question: will the FCC actually do anything about this?

Filed Under: bingeon, lying, net neutrality, throttling, video, youtube, zero rating
Companies: t-mobile, youtube