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John Legere reiterates benefits of zero-rated video-streaming offer, insists it doesn’t undermine net neutrality.
T-Mobile US chief executive John Legere has apologised to consumer group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) following a disagreement about the operator’s zero-rated video service, Binge On.
"By now you know that I am a vocal, animated and sometimes foul mouthed CEO. I don’t filter myself and you know that no one at T-Mobile filters me either," he said in an open letter on Monday.
"That means I will sometimes incite a bit of a ‘social media riot’, but I’m not going to apologise for that," he said. "I will however apologise for offending EFF and its supporters."
The dispute stemmed from Binge On, which lets customers watch as much video as they like, at no extra cost, and without it counting against their data allowance, provided the video service they access is a partner of T-Mobile’s.
With Binge On, T-Mobile does not discriminate against certain types of traffic, nor does it levy a fee on over-the-top (OTT) service providers to prioritise the traffic they generate. The scheme is also open to any video provider that wants to be a part of it.
Nonetheless, by not charging users to access certain video services, Binge On could be seen as undermining the principles of net neutrality because it may encourage customers to favour some OTT video providers over others.
Furthermore, it came to light that T-Mobile lowers the quality of all video watched by Binge On users, even if the video service they are accessing is not a Binge On partner, leading to accusations that T-Mobile throttles video traffic.
These issues were raised by EFF, among others, prompting an angry reaction from Legere.
"Who the f*** are you anyway, EFF? Why are you stirring up so much trouble? And, who pays you?" he asked in a video shared on Twitter last week.
The outspoken CEO also uploaded another, more long-winded defence of Binge On in a YouTube video in which he insisted that T-Mobile does not throttle video traffic, nor violate net neutrality. He also questioned the motives of Binge On’s critics in his own inimitable style.
Legere on Monday sought to diffuse the situation, reiterating Binge On’s benefits in a more measured tone.
T-Mobile and EFF "both agree that it is important to protect consumers’ rights and to give consumers value," he said. "We look forward to sitting down and talking with the EFF and that is a step we will definitely take. Unfortunately, my colour commentary from last week is now drowning out the real value of Binge On – so hopefully this letter will help make that clear again."
