AT&T Sued by FTC For Reducing Speed Of 'Unlimited' Data Plans

[Tech_Dreamer]

"Unlimited"

 

 

 

 

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday that it is suing AT&T for slowing down the data speeds for some customers who thought they were getting an “unlimited” data plan.

 

 

After some customers exceeded a certain amount of data during a billing cycle, AT&T slowed, or "throttled," the customers' Internet speed,

 

 

 

The FTC said AT&T did not "adequately" inform customers who had signed up for the company's unlimited data plan that their speeds would be slowed if they used a certain amount of data, which was sometimes as little as 2 gigabytes during a billing cycle. Streaming one hour of Netflix in HD can use as much as 3 gigabytes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The company has misled millions of its mobile customers, charging them for so-called unlimited data plans that were in reality not unlimited at all"

 

                                                                                                                                                     - Edith Ramirez,

 

The agency alleged that in some cases, AT&T slowed the data speeds of some of these customers by more than 90 percent, preventing people from being able to stream movies, load websites or use the phone's GPS function. The FTC said 3.5 million customers have been throttled 25 million times.

 

 

 

 

 

AT&T slowed the data speeds of some of these customers by more than 90 percent, preventing people from being able to stream movies, load websites or use the phone's GPS function

 

 

 

From 2007 to 2011, AT&T was the only carrier in the U.S. to offer the iPhone. The company stopped offering "unlimited" plans in June 2010

 

The FTC said that AT&T got thousands of complaints from customers who said their speeds were slowing down. Then, AT&T went after people who canceled their service.

 

When customers canceled their contracts after being throttled, AT&T charged those customers early termination fees, which typically amount to hundreds of dollars

 

 

 

" FTC's complaint "baseless" , We informed all unlimited data-plan customers via bill notices and a national press release that resulted in nearly 2,000 news stories, well before the program was implemented,"

                                                                                                          -  AT&T's general counsel, Wayne Watts

 

 

To be fair, The companies have a fair argument over this..

In response to increased data consumption, wireless companies have moved to tiered data plans, which offer a fixed amount of data each month. If a person goes over their plan, they have to pay a penalty.

AT&T said that throttling has to do with managing network congestion  , there is a finite amount of spectrum, and the more people use it, the slower it gets for everyone.

 

On the flip side..

 

It looks like AT&T was trying to push people into more expensive plans,

 

                                                                                                                                                  - Delara Derakhshani

 

We think that millions of customers have been affected and we hope to put money back in their pockets

 

If you're capped, extra data used over your plan is charged per megabyte. If you're throttled, you'll still get to use as much data as you want, but once you pass those new data ceilings, your speed will become slower and slower until your monthly billing cycle ends.

 

Via AT&T :

You'll receive a text message when your usage approaches 3GB in one billing cycle.

Each time you use 3GB or more in a billing cycle, your data speeds will be reduced for the rest of that billing cycle and then go back to normal.

The next time you exceed that usage level, your speeds will be reduced without another text message reminder.

If you have a 4G LTE smartphone and still have an unlimited data plan, the same process applies at 5GB of data usage, instead of 3GB.

You'll still be able to use as much data as you want. That won't change. Only your data throughput speed will change if you use 3GB or more in one billing cycle on a 3G or 4G smartphone or 5GB or more on a 4G LTE smartphone.

 

 

 

Bonus:

 

 

 

Post your rants & sane comments down below

 

huff huff..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/28/att-slowing-speeds-data-throttling-ftc_n_6062360.html

[Clyne]

At some point, speeds are gonna drop anyway....

I guess customers are gonna have to do this.

[d3sl91]

I just.... Don't understand how it is possible for people who use more than 3Gb or whatever to be the "extreme minority".

 

Are there that many grandparents that have smartphones and data plans?

 

 

Everyone I know watches netflix, hulu, youtube, constantly posting pictures, vines, snapchats, instagram, and streams music.

 

I use 1GB of my 10 GB in a week....easily.,... and I am a very conservative user....

[bcredeur97]

my entire family has been waiting for this lawsuit for more than 2 years... it finally came.

 

We have like 3 phones with unlimited data from AT&T still. all of them use like 5-10GB a month. The throttling at the middle/towards the end of the month is horrendous

 

luckily wifi has saved us from switching. we were just patiently waiting for something like this to happen.

 

I unfortunately got my phone later, and I have a 3GB plan. Its terrible. I could be using like 30GB a month lol but I limit myself. The limiting works fairly well. I try to do the majority of browsing and other things at home on my PC.

[Darkman]

No wonder why my speeds tanked within the month.. God damn AT&T! You are better-Oh wait..
I went from 10-15Mb/s down on about 3 bars on 4G to 1Mb/s.. Yeah, thank you FTC!

[Trik'Stari]

Now if only they would do the same to Comcast, TWC, Hughesnet, and every other service provider out there. I've got my ISP throttling me, called and complained, got a "tough shit" response. I'm sorry but I pay for 10Mbps, as far as I am concerned if it drops below that, then it's a breach of contract.

[Aniallation]

Definite repost but doing homework and don't feel like finding original thread

[MightyUnit]

 I'm sorry but I pay for 10Mbps, as far as I am concerned if it drops below that, then it's a breach of contract.

up to... 10Mbps    That is what they say correct? Like you say it should rather be a minimum of 10Mbps

[Trik'Stari]

up to... 10Mbps    That is what they say correct? Like you say it should rather be a minimum of 10Mbps

As far as I know it just says "10Mbps" and even then, it's still not enough. I'd prefer 10MBps for what we are paying. I used to get that from verizon from the same price when I lived on my own in another area.

[Tech_Dreamer]

Definite repost but doing homework and don't feel like finding original thread

 

Yup! Thanks for the head up

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/174466-ftc-t-mobile-knowingly-added-bogus-charges-to-bills/