This is exactly what the end of net neutrality looks like.<p>Certain "approved" services won't count towards your data plan, whereas all the others will be limited. As a result, it will be nearly impossible for startups to break into new markets, because they not only have to face the challenge of acquiring new users, but their services will be inherently inferior (from the user's perspective), as they will count towards their data caps. There will be less innovation, and more stagnation as incumbents face less and less competition: <a href="http://avc.com/2014/01/vc-pitches-in-a-year-or-two/" rel="nofollow">http://avc.com/2014/01/vc-pitches-in-a-year-or-two/</a><p>Notice how not <i>all</i> streaming services are covered - only the ones that T-Mobile has approved here.
For those doting on net neutrality - this is purely the 'answer' from a Cable companies perspective. People don't need cable now. So what do you do? Buy an ISP, match up with existing partners to offer deals. It's already happened here in New Zealand. Telecom have partnered with Spotify, Vodafone has just bought a bunch of smaller ISP's. Sky, originally our version of "cable"/satellite has now bought out a lot of the bigger ISP's and is using it's network to push content via streaming services at a premium.<p>The funny thing is, Telecom own pretty much all of our lines. (Govt sold them in the 80's.)<p>The plot thickens..
Picking winners and losers in the music streaming business:<p><a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140619/06354227623/when-your-internet-access-provider-gets-to-pick-winners-losers-theres-problem.shtml" rel="nofollow">https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140619/06354227623/when-...</a>
Great marketing move. Consider how much more press/mileage T-Mo gets for this, versus raising data caps by an equivalent amount (E.g. back in March when they bumped caps up by 0.5GB/mo on most of their plans [1].)<p>[1] <a href="http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=13758" rel="nofollow">http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=13758</a>