FTC Sues AT&T Over 'Misleading' Unlimited Data Throttling Practices [Updated]

C DM said:

All the other people's habits stuff aside, in the world of mobile services unlimited was created in connection with there not being any overages or extra charges associated with it. Implications of some sort of speeds or anything like that were not in the scope of it all.

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AT&T would have been better off keeping unlimited folks on to 3G and not letting them use LTE. When you get throttled they are supposedly throttling you back down to 3G speeds (UTMS supports up to 384kbps). At least then they wouldn't have to worry about throttling as it is pretty much too slow to use.


I switched off the unlimited plan cause I wanted to tether and was tired of having to JB my iPhone to do it. Plus I really don't use that much data in a month...

NewsBot said:

So you went to a store and tried to haggle a better price? You realize the reps don't make these prices....idk why people try to bargain like they're buying a car.

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Yep, that's what I did, and we ended up getting the manager's help in putting together a complicated deal that saved us several hundred dollars compared to what we would have paid by just switching plans and trading in the old iPhone. The sales rep said they would never go to the trouble unless someone sincerely asked for their help.

Might sound like a waste of time to you, but that mindset has enabled me to retire in my mid-50's debt-free. No matter where you are, it only takes two seconds to ask someone if that's their best price. (Or to call up AT&T a couple of weeks ago and ask them to double our data at no charge.)

diamond.g said:

AT&T would have been better off keeping unlimited folks on to 3G and not letting them use LTE. When you get throttled they are supposedly throttling you back down to 3G speeds (UTMS supports up to 384kbps). At least then they wouldn't have to worry about throttling as it is pretty much too slow to use.


I switched off the unlimited plan cause I wanted to tether and was tired of having to JB my iPhone to do it. Plus I really don't use that much data in a month...

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Excellent post. I think that you are right. AT&T should have not allowed those unlimited plans to go to LTE. It would have solved their problem. But they didn't so all they can do is use it as a lesson. I gave up the Unlimited Plan on my iPhone a couple months ago. I wanted tethering without having to jailbreak my iPhone 6 Plus.

I stil have the Grandfathered $30 Unlimited Plan on my iPad which is truly unlimited, no throttling. Trust me, if that was on a 10 gig plan, I'd be in trouble. Can you say "Netflix?"

I was just about to move to Verizon when I heard about this. Should I keep my unlimited plan and see what happens? I'd hate to switch to Verizon and find out AT&T lost and cannot throttle data speeds anymore.

I also filed a complaint with the FCC. I think they are getting involved too.

JrFreak said:

I was just about to move to Verizon when I heard about this. Should I keep my unlimited plan and see what happens? I'd hate to switch to Verizon and find out AT&T lost and cannot throttle data speeds anymore.

I also filed a complaint with the FCC. I think they are getting involved too.

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I'd love to know also

Just got my phones and had to call att to get them to keep my unlimited plan before activating them. According to the rep I have another 10 day wait until i get a text confirming the change back before i can activate the phones. Its not like i just waited a month for them to arrive in the first place or anything. hah. If they would have just made an option to keep your existing plan available this whole headach could have been avoided. I will keep my unlimited plan through the holidays when i will be traveling just to see what my usage actually is before switching to save some $$$ monthly.

Wonder what the status is

Any updates to this??

ATurd&Turd is very shady that's why no longer consider them for phone, broadband or mobile services. Paying $60 total per month for Verizon unlimited LTE data and it's truly unthrottled.

mi7chy said:

ATurd&Turd is very shady that's why no longer consider them for phone, broadband or mobile services. Paying $60 total per month for Verizon unlimited LTE data and it's truly unthrottled.

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Umm.. you do realize that they have theirs unthrottled because they were sued by the FCC for violating Net Neutrality rules, right?

BL.

bradl said:

Umm.. you do realize that they have theirs unthrottled because they were sued by the FCC for violating Net Neutrality rules, right?

BL.

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No LTE throttling but 3G is there. They wanted to do LTE but after FCC started looking into it more they backed off (don't think there was any lawsuit or anything about net neutrality, just perhaps some things about Verizon's deal for LTE spectrum and some of its details).

C DM said:

No LTE throttling but 3G is there. They wanted to do LTE but after FCC started looking into it more they backed off (don't think there was any lawsuit or anything about net neutrality, just perhaps some things about Verizon's deal for LTE spectrum and some of its details).

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There was..

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/31/verizon-can-no-longer-charge-for-tethering-fcc-declares/

via

https://www.eff.org/issues/net-neutrality

IIRC, the deal for the LTE spectrum had stipulations for offering the phones factory unlocked. I'll have to go back and check that..

BL.

bradl said:

There was..

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/31/verizon-can-no-longer-charge-for-tethering-fcc-declares/

via

https://www.eff.org/issues/net-neutrality

IIRC, the deal for the LTE spectrum had stipulations for offering the phones factory unlocked. I'll have to go back and check that..

BL.

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Not sure if that part of it all related to hotspot inclusion in plans (and only non-unlimited ones at that) has had much to do with throttling which is still present for 3G as I recall and which was going to be out in place for LTE just last month but was taken off the table after FCC started questing it. As for the LTE spectrum agreement, certainly a big part of that was related to factory unlocked LTE phones, but there were other stipulations about the use of that LTE spectrum and related devices and services.

I wonder if this is going to go anywhere in the near future... I want to get a 6+ but I don't want to switch to Verizon if this lawsuit will force them to stop throttling.

JrFreak said:

I wonder if this is going to go anywhere in the near future... I want to get a 6+ but I don't want to switch to Verizon if this lawsuit will force them to stop throttling.

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Would love to hear an update on this too

Was at the T-Mobile store on Monday talking to one of the rep about unlimited data. And I told him I have the unlimited data plan with AT&T from back in the day. And I got throttle last month for the first time in all the years of having this plan, got a text that I will be slowed down in performance. He replied back to me saying Sorry but AT&T doesn't have true unlimited data. And if I discide that I wanted to switch to there unlimited plan. I will never be throttled, he even when on to show me the amount of gb he used last month it was like 80gb. I was like u used 80gb!!! by your self??? Is response was I stream Netflix a lot and YouTube etc, when working. I am seriously thinking about going over to T-mobile for this reason.

01silver4 said:

Was at the T-Mobile store on Monday talking to one of the rep about unlimited data. And I told him I have the unlimited data plan with AT&T from back in the day. And I got throttle last month for the first time in all the years of having this plan, got a text that I will be slowed down in performance. He replied back to me saying Sorry but AT&T doesn't have true unlimited data. And if I discide that I wanted to switch to there unlimited plan. I will never be throttled, he even when on to show me the amount of gb he used last month it was like 80gb. I was like u used 80gb!!! by your self??? Is response was I stream Netflix a lot and YouTube etc, when working. I am seriously thinking about going over to T-mobile for this reason.

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I've never been throttled. I got up to around 20GB a few months back. I don't use as much now but I like that I don't have to think about it when I do. =)

Septembersrain said:

I've never been throttled. I got up to around 20GB a few months back. I don't use as much now but I like that I don't have to think about it when I do. =)

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What service carrier do u have?

bout time we put wifi in the street lamps and had open networks from our homes broadcast into them so we all share. And have city run wifi networks in them too.

spiderpumpkin said:

http://arstechnica.com/information-...turning-off-4g-or-switching-phones-wont-help/

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Thanks for the update. I still find it hard to believe that they are not yet technologically capable for the LTE plans, absurd if you ask me.

However, AT&T imposes a less-strict policy on non-LTE plans—those users are only throttled in times and places where the network is congested. AT&T claims there is some kind of technological limitation preventing it from treating all customers the same but that it will eliminate the gap sometime next year. “Once technologically available, we expect to adopt the same model for customers with 4G LTE smartphones on unlimited plans sometime in 2015,” the company told Ars last week.

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Hence why I gave up unlimited data a long time ago, NONE of the carriers truly offer unlimited data, they are all capped or regulated to some degree. Interesting thing is how Sprint and T-Mobile have these new offers of unlimited Data but expire in 2015? Really so what is unlimited also if you can get Sprint service the unlimited data might be of value to you but everyone I know who has Sprint complains about their data speeds.

I am happy with my Next Plan on AT&T with 10GB per month, sticking to this because I would rather pay a lower monthly and use WiFi more often then any other plan even when I had unlimited data for $30 per month.

Wicked1 said:

Hence why I gave up unlimited data a long time ago, NONE of the carriers truly offer unlimited data, they are all capped or regulated to some degree. Interesting thing is how Sprint and T-Mobile have these new offers of unlimited Data but expire in 2015? Really so what is unlimited also if you can get Sprint service the unlimited data might be of value to you but everyone I know who has Sprint complains about their data speeds.

I am happy with my Next Plan on AT&T with 10GB per month, sticking to this because I would rather pay a lower monthly and use WiFi more often then any other plan even when I had unlimited data for $30 per month.

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Hope you took advantage of the free 5GB deal that makes your plan 15GB.

Kendo said:

Hope you took advantage of the free 5GB deal that makes your plan 15GB.

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Nope it is just me on my plan and I rarely use 2GB since I am usually on WiFi also my company pays my bill so I am good with the 10GB

Currently, I don't go over 5GB often. And looking back the months I did go over I was probably using my TomTom GPS app those months, which I will no longer do. Not sure how much data the GPS apps use.

My fear though is when I get a 6+ I'll want to watch movies and videos more often. I honestly can't watch them on my 5, the screen is just too small (I did buy the VGA cord to hook to a monitor, but it won't charge my phone while using it so I can't get thru a full movie without stopping and charging up for an hour mid-movie).

I have NFL Sunday ticket and I'd love to be able to watch games while at work. I watched the Bronco vs Charger game Sunday and it used about 2.5GB of data. So you figure I'd need at least 20GB for the month just to watch (2) games every Sunday for the month.

I might just say screw it and switch to Verizon. I'll get $450 bill credit for switching and get the 15GB plan until they offer the 30GB for the 15GB price. I'm sure AT&T will somehow get out of this lawsuit and still throttle users to some point.