AT&T today said it will begin limiting the quality of mobile video for cellular data customers in early 2017. A new feature called “Stream Saver” will throttle video to DVD resolution of about 480p. Customers will be able to opt out of Stream Saver, but it will be enabled by default—even for customers with unlimited data, AT&T told Ars.
AT&T will notify customers once Stream Saver has been activated and provide instructions for turning it off and back on, the company’s announcement said. Customers on limited data plans may appreciate the feature, as it could help them stay under their data caps. But AT&T’s decision to enable video throttling by default on unlimited plans that were sold without any mention of such limits has little benefit for customers. It could have some benefit only because AT&T reserves the right to throttle unlimited data plans when customers exceed 22GB a month and connect to a congested cell tower. Using less data for video will help keep “unlimited” customers under 22GB.
“It’s your choice. You can still stream video in higher resolution, when available, whenever you choose,” AT&T said. “You control Stream Saver and can turn it off or back on for any qualified line at any time at myAT&T or Premier for business customers. There is no charge to disable or enable Stream Saver.”
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Source: Ars Technica – AT&T to limit video quality by default—even on unlimited data plans