John Legere's company is also willing to match AT&T's zero-rating by saying that streaming DirecTV Now won't count against your data caps. By doing that, both companies are violating net neutrality rules in spirit, if not in law, by giving one service (DirecTV) an advantage over, say, Comcast (bad example, I know). Also, as mentioned, unless you pay an extra $25 per month, any video on T-Mobile is heavily compressed 480p, not HD.

The offer is also a way for T-Mobile to drum up free publicity -- something Legere excels at -- and as I'm writing this article, it's obviously working. However, it also offers me the opportunity to point out that in France, I have 1Gbps of internet, 161 channels and two mobile phone lines with 10GB of data each for 70 euros, or under $75 per month. So even with T-Mobile throwing in DirecTV for free, US consumers are paying a lot in comparison to the rest of the world for what has become an essential service.