Clauses in AT&T Contracts Have Always Provided for Limits on 'Unlimited' Data Plans

MacRumors · Mar 5, 2012

A number of customers have expressed outrage and disappointment at AT&T's various efforts at throttling users with older "unlimited" data plans. The most recent change slows unlimited data users to download speeds of 256 Kbps after using 3GB of data.

Several Twitter users felt that AT&T was violating their contract and wanted to cancel their contract or file a class action lawsuit against the company. Blogger Jeff Jarvis feels that throttling is "fraud", and tech writer Matt Buchanan had this to say:

I think it's fair to expect the contract you signed up for remains the contract you signed up for.

But is AT&T's throttling of unlimited data users a violation of its contract with users? TOSBack is a website that tracks changes to the terms of service of various services, including both Apple and AT&T.

The contract from June 26, 2007 -- just a few days before the original iPhone went on sale -- includes a number of stipulations governing exactly how and why the iPhone's unlimited data plan can be restricted, including banning some video downloading and streaming. Most importantly, for customers now experiencing throttling, is this passage:

AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network.

Language similar to this continues in every draft of the contract through today's version. The current wireless customer agreement includes this language in section 6.2:

AT&T reserves the right to (i) deny, disconnect, modify and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network.

AT&T believes that it is well within its rights to throttle users on unlimited data plans, even as a Californian iPhone user won an $850 small claims judgement against the company over throttling. AT&T has promised to appeal. A class action suit might be the normal evolution of such a complaint, but AT&T's subscriber contract prohibits class action or jury trials, leaving arbitration and small claims as options for unhappy customers.

Not everyone agrees that AT&T is misbehaving by throttling. SplatF's Dan Frommer opines that users are not acknowledging reality when they complain about AT&T terminating unlimited data plans.

Here's the big picture bottom line: If you use a lot of data, you are clearly getting some sort of value out of it. Value isn't free. The world's finite resources simply aren't trending toward free. That isn't logical. I predict most of you will be spending significantly more per month for wireless data in 5 and 10 years than you do today. You'll be getting faster and better service, and more value out of it, but it won't be cheaper.

Please get over your emotional battle -- and extinguish any legal threats, that's silly -- and join us in reality. If you use a lot of mobile data, be happy about it, and be happy paying for it. It's worth it. And consider trying the add-on tethering plan for the iPhone, it can be useful if you carry a laptop or iPad.

AT&T's current data plans offer 300MB/month for $20, 3GB/month for $30, or 5GB/month for $50 (including tethering), with each additional 1GB costing users $10 on the higher allocation plans.

Article Link: Clauses in AT&T Contracts Have Always Provided for Limits on 'Unlimited' Data Plans

g-boac · Mar 5, 2012

It's clearly not keeping with the spirit or intent of an unlimited data plan to simply cap the data and the cost at the same as a paid data plan - by definition this is not "unlimited".

I understand that it's fair to reasonably draw the line at some point, but this can effectively be done on a case-by-case basis where someone is truly and egregiously exceeding the mean usage by several standard deviations.

Xiph0s · Mar 5, 2012

Who the hell still uses ATT?

snowmoon · Mar 5, 2012

AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network.

This does not deal with the situation at hand since they can't claim that 3G "negatively impacts wireless network or service levels" while turning around and selling 5G/month service to others.

Munkypoo7 · Mar 5, 2012

Even if it's within their TOS, it still sucks :\

D-Love · Mar 5, 2012

Can that Dan Frommer guy sound like any more of a schill for AT&T?

Good Lord..

iRCL · Mar 5, 2012

MacRumors said:
Not everyone agrees that AT&T is misbehaving by throttling. SplatF's Dan Frommer opines that users are not acknowledging reality when they complain about AT&T terminating unlimited data plans.

What an absolutely foolish viewpoint from Dan Frommer. What he says is not how any broadband Internet bandwidth is charged for or used. I have never heard his name before, but he clearly has no idea what he is talking about.

Primejimbo · Mar 5, 2012

Xiph0s said:
Who the hell still uses ATT?

It works where I need it too and Verizon doesn't, so why not? Why do people use Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and others? That was probably one of the stupidest comments I have ever read on here.

Macopotamus · Mar 5, 2012

I'm mostly concerned with the precedent being set here, using sneaky clauses in a contract to change your service? What will they change next? It feels slimy and is bad business.

This also can't bode well for the future. Here we are expecting LTE iPhones and iPads this year, and we're getting access to less and less bandwidth at higher prices. This is butting heads with the technology, streaming a few HD videos on an iPad 3 LTE will eat up 5GB in no time, then what? We can't even pay a reasonable price for more data? I think data usage is quickly going to be in the realm of the extortionist rates carriers charge for SMS, thankfully Apple found a way around that with iMessage, but outside of Wi-Fi there simply isn't another option for highly mobile users.

AlphaHumanus · Mar 5, 2012

Xiph0s said:
Who the hell still uses ATT?

Actually, a lot of people.

I've never had a problem with them either. Customer service has been top notch, my coverage and speeds are great, and I've never been throttled.

AT&T since '04. Unlimited since 11/'08.

FSMBP · Mar 5, 2012

Maybe they shouldn't have offered "Unlimited Data" when they didn't have the means to keep it up.

I know they're people who 'abuse' the network, but don't invite people when you don't have enough seats at the table.

ScottYelich · Mar 5, 2012

Tethering?

Fine. I don't care if I'm "throttled" -- as long as it's not
throttled down to 5% of previous bandwidth, etc. I
don't use anywhere NEAR the top 50% of total data downloaded
per month, yet if everyone were to reduce, I would eventually
be in the top 5% -- that's bogus. Throttle me after a set
amount -- fine -- as long as the throughput is still USEABLE.

So, now that we've settled that I don't have unlimited data / bandwidth --
when can I get my tethering with my unlimited plan?

What's AT&T's excuse now to not allow me to tether?

Scott

Primejimbo · Mar 5, 2012

AlphaHumanus said:
Actually, a lot of people.

I've never had a problem with them either. Customer service has been top notch, my coverage and speeds are great, and I've never been throttled.

Unlimited since 11/08.

Another reason why I stay with them. I actually had an issue last week and they fixed it with no problem. it was actually my fault (well parents who are on my plan) and they fixed it without a problem.

Sleepymoose285 · Mar 5, 2012

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Why can't I tether with a fixed data allotment (with the exception of the 5 GB plan)? I'll just use data faster with my iPad or MacBook Air, and run into overage charges. It's my data; let me do with it what I want.

I'm annoyed that Apple hasn't pushed back harder on AT&T to quit nickle-and-diming their customers like this.

Looking at Verizon now.

AppleMad98004 · Mar 5, 2012

Limits

I agree there should be more transparency in the contracts but there is one fact to remember, there is a physical limit to bandwidth (like a highway). Once it is full there is no more room for additional users. The only option is to slow the packet streams.

I would rather have good speed for the most rather than a few (5%) screwing it up for the many and then we all would suffer.

neiltc13 · Mar 5, 2012

Macopotamus said:
I'm mostly concerned with the precedent being set here, using sneaky clauses in a contract to change your service? What will they change next? It feels slimy and is bad business.

This isn't a "sneaky clause". It's obvious what it means and it's written in the contract. If you signed the contract you agreed to it.

Unless of course you live in the UK, where we have the Unfair Contract Terms Act to get some recourse.

rkahl · Mar 5, 2012

I think this throttle issue is absolutely hilarious! Especially when you have (had) people people using 20gb + a month and bragging about it! People stop trying to use your "Unlimited Data Coupon" from 2001, it has EXPIRED!

devinstan · Mar 5, 2012

bs

I received the dreaded text a few days ago saying they would be throttling me this month. I dont see how they can have a 5gb plan and that doesnt hurt the network but unlimited people can only go to 3gb?WTF? I would switch to Sprint if it didnt suck in my area. Also Im not abusing the network I dont tether I just use my phone a lot, I average about 6gb a month.

Peace · Mar 5, 2012

The United States is in dire need of upgraded broadband.

Primejimbo · Mar 5, 2012

rkahl said:
I think this throttle issue is absolutely hilarious! Especially when you have (had) people people using 20gb + a month and bragging about it! People stop trying to use your "Unlimited Data Coupon" from 2001, it has EXPIRED!

People using it didn't bother me, it was the ones who bragged about it that got me then cry when they got caught.

Krazy Bill · Mar 5, 2012

AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network.

I fully understand why AT&T has the above clause in the contract. Makes perfect business sense. But the issue is they sold services with the word "unlimited" in the plan name.

Entirely misleading.

dcranston · Mar 5, 2012

I'm not that up in arms over the "unlimited" thing, although it does seem like a misnomer. I think the precedent which seems illegal is this part:

A class action suit might be the normal evolution of such a complaint, but AT&T's subscriber contract prohibits class action or jury trials, leaving arbitration and small claims as options for unhappy customers.

Having language that restricts how one is able to take a company to court seems...very much not okay.

pavelbure · Mar 5, 2012

I'll just repost something I've said before.

I'm so sick of this "hog" idea being thrown around for heavy data users. It's a bunch of BS. We are not pulling data from a big bucket that gets refilled once a month. By this I mean if a so called "hog" is using alot of data at 3am -6am is he really putting a strain on the network ? No, he is not.

Data is more like the local highway, during the off hours everything is going fine, not many people are on it, during prime hours it is slowed down. If att were smart they would say "Once you go over your 3 gb you will be throttled when the network is congested or between 8am - 6pm."

This way on the off hours you still get good speeds when there are less people on. The way it is now is nothing more than some sort of punishment for going over 3gb.

troop231 · Mar 5, 2012

Peace said:
The United States is in dire need of upgraded broadband.

Indeed! I just saw where Ohio will be upgrading its backbone to 100Gbps with Oarnet http://www.oar.net/press/releases/2012/2012_100G.shtml

We need more states to do the same thing.

cbeyond · Mar 5, 2012

It is amazing to me that all the downstream companies of the iOS eco-verse have not taken a clue from Apple.
The focus should be on overall customer experience and only secondarily on the bottom line.
That focus leads to a better return and better experience for both provider and customer.

Although AT&T may be within its contractual rights to throttle user's speeds, they should not be punishing us for using their services...ultimately this has more to do with AT&T's willingness to invest in their own infrastructure to the point where the data pipeline in the UMTS network is not such finite commodity to need a concept like throttling.
AT&T has made a "ton" of money on the iPhone...and we as end-users expect AT&T to pour a lot of that revenue back into their network.

Note this has not been an issue until recently - only with the flood of 4 and 4S users since the 4S' into last year has AT&T actually gone ahead with the throttling of "heavy" users.

I am mad.
I have been with AT&T since 2007 - and I am now seriously considering moving all 4 of my family's iPhones over to Sprint.

Clauses in AT&T Contracts Have Always Provided for Limits on 'Unlimited' Data Plans

macrumors bot

macrumors 6502

macrumors regular

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 6502

macrumors regular

macrumors 6502

macrumors 68040

macrumors regular

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68030

macrumors newbie

macrumors 68040

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68040

macrumors 65816

macrumors newbie

Cancelled

macrumors 68040

macrumors 68030

macrumors member

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 603

macrumors member

Our Staff