There will soon be less to choose from for customers. The reason for this is a court ruling that prohibits the service.

• Telekom has to end streaming service: March 2023 is the end of stream on
• Streaming service of Telekom must hire service according to the court ruling
• Customers of Stream On: As long as the streaming service can be used

Dortmund-If you want to use the complete offer, you now have many streaming services to choose from. In the spring of 2023, however, one of them has to hire its offer-the reason is a judgment of the European Court of Justice.

Telekom has to end streaming service: March 2023 is the end of stream on

Deutsche Telekom has been offering its own contract customers for a few years with the service Stream On a flat rate for music, video and gaming, so nothing more than a streaming service. The service is available monthly in addition to the respective data volume, such as a mobile phone contract.

This principle is also referred to as zero rating because no data volume is used up. But that is exactly what the courts and the Federal Network Agency decided. The end for stream on in the form in which it currently exists is imminent. But there should also be changes at Netflix-the streaming service has announced advertising despite the subscription paid.

Streaming service of Telekom must hire service according to the court ruling

As early as April 2022, the Federal Network Agency banned the marketing of Zero rating, as reported, among other things, inside Digital. The offers would violate network neutrality because they would not treat data traffic equally. However, this assessment does not come from the authority itself, but from the European Court of Justice.

This judgment was made on September 2, 2021 and, in addition to Stream On from Telekom, also affects the Vodafone Pass. In the meantime, two cell phone manufacturers in Germany also have to deal with a ban.

Simplified, the Court prohibits that tariffs are treated unevenly. In the case of the zero rating offers, there is an unequal treatment because stream on can be used indefinitely and is not counted towards the data volume of the mobile phone contract-in contrast to the competition such as Spotify, Netflix or Tidal.

Customers of Stream On: As long as the streaming service can be used

Anyone who still uses the streaming service still has time to look around for alternatives. Telekom only has to finally stop stream on at the end of March 2023. It is currently still unclear whether there could be compensation for existing customers-for example more data volume (more news about digital at Federal Network).

According to Telekom, the mobile phone contract itself should not be influenced by the ban and remains for all customers-only without stream on. The termination conditions should also remain. In the long term, however, the Federal Network Agency promises that customers are offered contracts with more data volume.

Rubric list picture: © Wedel/Kirchner-Media/Imago