T-Mobile publishes a “Wireless Customer Bill of Rights”

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By Larry Banks

T-Mobile just announced a new weapon in its marketing arsenal, the “Wireless Customer Bill of Rights”, which it plans to use against its rivals in the US mobile operator market.

The document describes policies that are already in effect at T-Mobile, such as free international data roaming and a moratorium on overage fees. The operator is asking people to share the document with rivals AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint via Twitter, or even to print the document and take it to their retail outlets.

A Twitter campaign even asks people to use the hashtag #TweetJohn to receive an emoji of T-Mobile CEO John Legere. If the emoji is used more than 500,000 times by March 31st, the firm says it will use magenta chalk to write very post outside high-traffic AT&T and Verizon stores around the US.

The promotion marks the third anniversary of T-Mobile’s un-carrier campaign. It positions the carrier as something of a revel in the US cellular market, and some of its policies have been effective in forcing competitors to adapt, for example by practically eliminating once-standard 2-year contracts.

The company has attracted its fair share of criticism, however for some of its tactics. One of the most recent examples is called “Bing On”, a perk, which is on by default, that lets subscribers stream video from selective services without using their data allowance. The video is downgraded however to 480p quality (i.e. DVD quality) and at one point it was discovered the company throttles back the quality of all videos, regardless of whether the source is one of the Bing On partners.

T-Mobile is said to be working to resolve that situation, but may still face concerns that Binge On violates the FCC’s net neutrality rules, which state that Internet Service Providers cannot degrade traffic on the basis of content, app or service.

SOURCE: T-Mobile.

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