• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 7, 2016

T-Mobile has expanded its controversial BingeOn feature by adding 13 new video providers, including A&E, Lifetime and Fandor, as partners.

The move means that T-Mobile subscribers can now stream videos from around three dozen online video distributors, without having those streams count against their data caps.

Since BingeOn launched last November, T-Mobile customers are watching 12% more video, CEO John Legere said today in a blog post and video.

BingeOn primarily affects T-Mobile subscribers who don't have unlimited data plans, but even subscribers with "unlimited" data have incentives to use BingeOn. That's because those subscribers only have unlimited data when using their smartphones; they face data caps when they use their phones' hotspot capabilities to connect tablets, laptops or other devices to the Web. But if they use BingeOn, videos that are streamed via hotspot won't be counted against the caps.

Despite the benefits, BingeOn also has at least one drawback: When BingeOn is activated, T-Mobile downgrades the quality of all video -- from partner companies as well as non-partners like YouTube -- to "DVD quality." DVD quality is just 480 lines per screen; HD quality, by comparison, requires at least 720 lines per screen.

People can opt out of BingeOn, but when T-Mobile rolled out the service it activated the feature by default.

That decision drew criticism from net neutrality advocates like Marvin Ammori and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They say that carriers shouldn't throttle video (or other applications) without obtaining users' explicit consent.

Google and the trade group Internet Association also raised concerns about the decision to degrade video by default. "Reducing data charges can be good for users, but it doesn’t justify throttling all video services, especially without explicit user consent," Google recently said through a spokesperson.

Legere fired back today by accusing Google and other critics of "using Net Neutrality as a platform to get into the news."

He also said that the company isn't throttling video, given that consumers can decide whether to keep BingeOn activated.

"Binge On does not permanently slow down data nor remove customer control," he said. "If you decide you want the full resolution video, great! Just flip the switch in your account."