Study: T-Mobile Binge On Misleading, Potentially Exploitable

New research claims that T-Mobile's Binge On still violates net neutrality, and in some instances offers notably lower quality video than T-Mobile promises. Under Binge On, 90 participating video providers now have their services exempt from T-Mobile usage caps by default. While the idea of "free data" appeals to consumers, net neutrality advocates continue to argue the idea still isn't good for the open Internet -- given that if you're giving one large company special treatment, you're putting other, smaller companies at a disadvantage.

If you're a small non-profit or video startup out of Cleveland, for example, you may not even realize your non-whitelisted service is at a notable disadvantage to larger competitors -- which was the sort of thing net neutrality rules were supposed to prevent.

And while consumers can opt-out of Binge On, most customers likely are going to be too technically incompetent or apathetic to bother. It's also an argument of precedent: let T-Mobile zero rate select services, and AT&T and Verizon will be allowed to zero rate as well, and their implementations of such programs simply won't be consumer friendly.

If the FCC doesn't act on zero rating, consumer advocates say the door would be open for ISPs to dismantle net neutrality -- just so long as they're clever enough about it. That's why numerous countries (Chile, The Netherlands, Japan, India) decided to avoid the slippery slope and just ban zero rating entirely.

In a new study released this week, researchers from Northeastern University argue that Binge On remains, no matter what chirpy T-Mobile CEO John Leger claims, still a bad idea on its face because however it's dressed up, you're still giving an unfair advantage to the biggest companies -- something net neutrality rules are supposed to prevent.

"The internet has been hugely successful because it enables innovation, where all new internet applications receive the same network service as incumbents—it's a level playing field," says researcher David Choffnes. "T-Mobile's policy gives special treatment to video providers that work with them. What if every ISP did this, but in a different way? In such a world, the next Netflix, Hulu, or Pied Piper might never get off the ground because keeping up with ISPs and their policies would leave them chasing their tails."

In addition to violating net neutrality, Choffnes' team found that T-Mobile's claim that video is automatically downgraded to 480p by default often isn't true. In their trials using YouTube, for example, the researchers say video quality was often closer to 360p, and notably blurry even on the small screen of a smartphone. The researchers also questioned T-Mobile's ability to accurately track which content should be properly whitelisted, saying they found at least one un-specified service that was classified incorrectly.

"T-Mobile's detection methods are very simple, so there's no way they can always be right," he says. "That means that Binge On is likely slowing down traffic that is not video. This raises serious concerns about compliance with the Open Internet Order."

More interestingly, perhaps, the researchers found that it wasn't that difficult to trick T-Mobile's systems into whitelisting other content -- though the team didn't fully disclose how this was possible.

"We realized we could make any network traffic zero rated by just putting the right text in the right place," says Choffnes. "That is a security vulnerability—it's potentially an open cash register that people can take from."

The researchers have submitted their findings to the FCC, who is investigating whether or not to allow "zero rating" of select content. Unlike many other countries the FCC's net neutrality rules don't specifically ban zero rating, but do give the FCC authority to address anti-competitive behavior on a "case by case basis" under the rules' general conduct portion. The FCC says it's conducting an "informal information exercise" to determine whether it will consider various implementations of zero rating anti-competitive and in violation of this rule.

And while T-Mobile's Binge On is generally liked by consumers enamored by the lure of "free stuff," net neutrality supporters argue that doesn't magically mean zero rating isn't a horrible precedent for the open Internet all the same. With net neutrality now on more solid legal footing, all eyes are on the FCC to see if the agency will actually bother to enforce them, or if they'll let companies tap dance around the rules under the guise of consumer benefits.