T-Mobile CEO, John Legere Apologizes to EFF for BingeOn Response

(courtesy of  Wikimedia)

T-Mobile is innovative. T-Mobile is great for consumers at its very core.  T-Mobile is a market changer as it has forced the competition to give customers more than they have ever dreamed they would get from the two largest wireless companies in the USA: AT&T and Verizon.  

Where the witty, yet foul-mouthed, CEO struck a nerve in the social media circles is when he asked "who the F*** EFF was?", apparently upset at the probe or independent test EFF (Electrontic Frontier Foundation), an international non-profit digital rights group, based in the United States.

Well, in an interesting turn of events, after an EFF partner removed their site from the BingOn program, a program that allows T-Mobile Customers with Simple Choice plans above 2gb per month of 4G LTE data, the market moving CEO released a letter to Consumers about BingeOn.

In it, he clarifies the motive behind BingeOn, defends T-Mobile's "pro" Net Neutrality stance as well as apologized to EFF for offending them and their supporters.

Here is a snippet of what Legere said in his letter:

"...I will however apologize for offending EFF and its supporters.  Just because we don't completely agree on all aspects of Binge On doesn't mean I don't see how they fight for consumers. We both agree that it is important to protect consumers' rights and to give customers value..."

In my opinion, alot of grief could have been avoided by not automatically opting everyone, EVEN UNLIMITED CUSTOMERS, in to Binge On; a feature they would have to turn off.  So, in the most vanilla sense, customers did not have a choice to TURN BINGE ON OFF.  They were forced to have to turn it OFF themselves or suffer "optimized" (or as EFF says downgraded) video streaming.  I think turning it on as a default hurt the credibility of the company that launched the service as a completely optional service.

They did, however, at launch and thereafter, tell T-Mobile customers they were free to turn the service off.  I just don't happen to agree with the roll out although I totally love the fact that BingeOn is an option for all T-Mobile consumers (with data bucket plans, not those with UNLIMITED plans).

It is good to see that T-Mobile's Legere did the right thing and apologized publicly, while clarifying his company's offering and motives.

More power to you, Magenta! Keep those UNcarrier customer pain-point-addressing moves coming, just make sure the consumers feel like they are in control and enroll the media outlets to help explain how the new move works and how to take control over your account.