Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Last we left you before the Thanksgiving holiday break (U.S. only), Sprint and T-Mobile US were in the midst of a real humdinger of a feud that I felt was a great template for how families should act during the holidays.
Well, it seems the holiday did nothing to tamper the competitive spirit of our two protagonists, and in fact looks to have also drawn some attention from Verizon Wireless. And you know it’s getting serious when Verizon Wireless gets involved.
Over the past week or so, Sprint went all T-Mobile US and had a plane fly a Sprint banner over the T-Mobile US headquarters in Seattle. Sure, it was not the most original marketing move, but the mocking makes it even funnier.
Of course, T-Mobile US’ sense of humor in the matter resulted in the carrier threatening all of its nationwide rivals with plans for carrier-specific promotions targeting one carrier a week.
The first move was tilted at Sprint, with T-Mobile US throwing $200 at Sprint customers to switch their allegiance. It’s hard from a consumer perspective to argue with cash on the hood, but the offer did seem to lack T-Mobile US’ usual flair and seemed more like something someone with more money than ideas would initiate.
T-Mobile US this week set its sights on AT&T Mobility, announcing plans to provide switching AT&T Mobility customers with a top-of-the-line Apple iPhone for the price of a base model. And I am sure it’s just a coincidence the promotion offers up $200 in savings for customers.
Next up, T-Mobile US said it plans to target Verizon Wireless, which seemed to wake the sleeping giant into offering up some free data for customers. Nothing earth shattering mind you, but the move does show Verizon Wireless remains aware it has rivals looking to drink its milkshake.
And, while Sprint has been somewhat quiet since its offer to slash everyone’s monthly cell bill, the carrier does have another countdown clock ticking towards the promise of some new holiday promotions.
From a consumer perspective, it’s all really quite festive.
Experts have told me to not be alarmed by the moves, stating that the executives in charge no what they are doing. While that advice is most likely true, I am going to hold out hope that it’s not.
What fun is it if sane people are making sane decisions that only appear to be insane? I want to believe that the holiday season does for the really smart people running wireless carriers what it does to me when strolling down the aisle at Toys-R-Us or down the screen on Amazon.com: replaces common sense with no sense.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. Here is a quick, but satisfying extra:
–I’ve recently had the chance to partake in T-Mobile US’ recent Binge On service, which for those out of the loop promises customers unlimited cellular streaming of video content from dozens of content providers like Netflix and HBO Go.
Now, I am not one of those binge-watching fanatics that manages to carve out 37 straight hours in order to watch a television series, but I do on occasion like to stream a show now and then. And, most of that has come via a Wi-Fi connection, mostly because I figured the higher connection speed would provide a better picture quality and there is really no reason to hog a bunch of cellular bandwidth my neighbors may need. (What a nice guy, no?)
But, with promises that the Binge On service would provide “DVD-like” (480p or better) video quality via a cellular connection without impacting a data bucket, it needed to be tested. So, I fired up a T-Mobile US cellular-equipped tablet device and did some testing.
First off, I did manage to get a pretty robust LTE signal in my somewhat quasi-rural test area, with speed test application-generated results in excess of 20 megabits per second. But, as we know with Binge On, T-Mobile US is not giving consumers the full-speed experience and instead using some nifty network management tools to vary speeds in order to maintain network integrity.
Once enabled and the streaming began, I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed with the streaming video quality. Sure, it was watchable, but it was definitely a step down from what I had been used to via an unrestricted Wi-Fi or even a straight-up LTE connection. The service did seem to quickly adapt to the limited bandwidth resulting in some improvement in picture quality, but it never seemed to really become a clear picture.
To T-Mobile US’ defense, I was using a tablet device with an 8-inch screen, which is probably a touch larger and thus harder to provide a sharp picture on than a smaller-screened smartphone. But, then again, who in one sitting is going to watch every episode of “Twin Peaks” on a 5-inch screen.
I mean, there is no way this can be absorbed on such a small screen:
Again, it was totally watchable, and if this had been 2010 I would have been knocked out by the picture quality and overall capabilities. But, it’s not and so I wasn’t. (Yet another reason we need to get busy on time machines: reduced technological advancement letdown.)
However, when I take a step back and realize that T-Mobile US is providing this service for free to current customers, well then the expectation-to-payoff ratio is altered. Heck, even T-Mobile US management explained Binge On was just an option for consumers and if they didn’t like the quality they could always turn it off.
And as I had previously mentioned, the best part is the Binge On service hits at a significant sore spot for wireless carriers: video. T-Mobile US is offering something that most said was impossible. That fact alone is really enough for me to be a big fan of Binge On.
Is it perfect? No. But is it awesome? Indeed.
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