AT&T is about to roll out a new option to its customers that will let them stream videos from their smart phones or tablets in standard- definition quality of about 480 pixels instead of loading high- definition videos on 720n pixels and higher starting early in 2017. This new video streaming option, called Stream Saver is believed by AT&T to be a "free and convenient data- saving feature". Early next year, AT&T customers who are under mobile data plans will be sent messages when Stream Saver has been activated on their devices. This data- saving feature will also affect users who are under the carrier's GoPhone prepaid plans.

Ars Technica also reported that customers may opt out of Stream Saver, but the feature will be enabled by default, said AT&T when they announced the data- saving feature. It was also reported that even AT&T customers under unlimited data plans will be affected by Stream Saver. By the time AT&T customers receive a notification that Stream Saver has been activated on their device, they will also be given instructions on how to disable the feature and how to turn it back on. Accprding to Ars, this new data- saving feature by AT&T will benefit its customers who are on limited data plans since it will help them lower their data usage and prevent them from going over and being charged for the data overage.

On the other hand, they mentioned that the feature may only have 'some' benefit to unlimited data customers because AT&T has the right to throttle unlimited data plans when customers exceed 22GB a month and the feature will help keep customers under the 22GB data usage limit. AT&T said that it's the customer's choice since they may still stream videos in higher resolution whenever they choose by disabling the feature using myAT&T or Premier for business customers, according to a report from CNET. Stream saver will only be applicable to customers using cellular data, which means that video streaming will be normal when they connect to Wi-Fi or home Internet connections.