T-Mobile's CEO, John Legere, announced on Tuesday's Un-Carrier X event that customers will now be able to stream videos from Netflix, HBO and other services for free without using up any of their allotted monthly data.
Called Binge On, T-Mobile customers will be able to stream content from a total of 24 services, including 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 and WatchESPN, with more streaming services on the way starting on Sunday, Nov. 15.
Any streaming provider can join the Binge On program for free as long as they meet the technical requirements.
"With Binge On, no one pays — not the customers, not the video streaming services — and everyone wins," Legere said in a press release.
Binge On is only available for customers with its flagship Simple Choice plan, which starts at $50 per month and includes unlimited data, talk and text on the carrier's 4G LTE network.
Legere also announced an update to the Simple Choice plan to now include double the amount of data — 2 GB — at no additional cost. That means the plans will now feature 2 GB, 6 GB and 10 GB, as well as unlimited options.
"Un-Carrier X marks the next step in this revolution, and it is massive," a seemingly excited Legere said. "Today, we're not only doubling your data in Simple Choice, we're making your data work a lot harder for you! With Binge On, video streams free from 24 streaming services to start, and more to come! Only T-Mobile would find a way for customers to watch unlimited HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV and more ... without eating into their LTE data, while the Duopoly is squeezing consumers with overage fees and over-buying! T-Mobile is un-leashing entertainment and giving customers exactly what they want!"
Instead of eating away at monthly data, Binge On uses a data compression algorithm that optimizes video for mobile screens, while reducing data consumption to still deliver 480p "DVD or better quality" video. Since the company has optimized mobile streaming, customers can now watch three times more video.
T-Mobile is the first service provider to offer free video streaming, which may attract new users as mobile video streaming has become more popular. The company states that customers are using almost two-and-a-half times more data for streaming videos on their mobile devices in the last two years, and this number is expected to continue to rise by more than 400 percent from 1.6 GB to 8.4 GB per person by 2020.
Customers will still have the option to turn Binge On off or on for each of their T-Mobile lines, but by having this feature on, they won't have to worry about the data overages wireless carriers are notorious for charging.
To celebrate the program, T-Mobile is providing its Simple Choice customers with a 30 percent off discount of a one-year subscription to Sling TV's "Best of Live TV" package.
The free video streaming feature comes after the launch of Music Freedom, its free music streaming option that works similarly to the new video program. T-Mobile said that it has quadrupled the number of services including in Music Freedom to now cover 95 percent of the music streaming platforms that are used by its customers.
Source: T-Mobile
