AT&T Fined $100 Million by FCC for Unlimited Data Throttling Practices

[darkslide29]

It says, "you may experience experience reduced dataspeeds at times and in areas that are experiencing network congestion."

It sounds like AT&T are sending text messages as a scare tactic to alter how users use their data... but depending on your area/location, you may not get throttled to unusable speeds. Since AT&T changed their throttling policy, I've gone over 42gb this billing cycle with 8 days to go. No signs of throttling in my area... and haven't seen any slow down in places I've been in San Diego.

You may want to check your speeds after you reach 5gb before getting to upset.... your location might not be congested.

Thanks, you're right that is what it said. I will check after I get to 5gb. I am in San Francisco, so I would think there is a good chance my location is congested. But with your good luck in San Diego I may not see any throttling. We will see. Sadly, I got too excited for E3 on Monday and streamed Microsoft and Sony's presentations at work (no wifi for me here). I still have 3 weeks left in my billing month lol, so this situation is my own fault. It was a rare event for me to stream so much in one day..

 

[iMas70]

Ok... show us the money!!! Consumers should get a piece of this pie.

 

[bushido]

lol literally every phone provider i know in europe does that. all plans r unlimited cuz u can atill use it after lets say 1GB its just going down to 64kbs for the rest of the month but like i said it is still unlimited just slower

 

[paulsdenton]

Richly deserved. There is some justice in the world.

 

[Technodynamic]

delete... duplicate reply

 

[mrgraff]

And after they pay that drop in the bucket, they'll just continue business as usual?

 

[Technodynamic]

I know mod rules: can't just post a picture, so here's my joining text... "AT&T deserves it, laugh out loud!"

 

[CFreymarc]

What I find annoying is, I fully accepted this years ago, and decided to just switch to a limited, family share plan, because I thought AT&T would continue this kind of garbage, or just do away with unlimited plans altogether. So because of their deceptive practices, I changed my plan. Can I go back to unlimited now? No. Ugh. Good. I'm glad they got fined $100 million. All of the telecoms are garbage.

With this fine comes massive a lawsuit for consumer liability. If not already in progress, expect a law firm collecting all the consumer data via S&D, a letter notifying you are open to some compensation and a year or so from now, either a check for missed opportunity or an offer to re-grandfather (yes, that is a business term) you back into the deal.

 

[CFreymarc]

although as an AT&T grandfathered unlimited I won't see a dime of this - I can still say "suck it AT&T"

I'd say there is a chance of compensation in a mass consumer class action. Sure a law firm is already working on this.

 

[kdarling]

They illegally charged consumers for services (unlimited internet) that they weren't providing for 1,825 days and they had to pay a fine of just the PROFIT from 3 of those days. It's less than nothing to them.

Perhaps, but a fine paid to the government does not recompense the people who were actually affected by the throttling.

Hmm. Also, using the viewpoint that it was a "small" fine, then does that mean that the government didn't think it was that bad an offense?

 

[SDub90]

Just switched from unlimited for me and 3GB for the other 4 on my plan to 15GB shared between the 5 of us -- the throttling kicked in after only a week into the new cycle for me and it made it unbearable. I hope I can switch back to unlimited if they remove throttling or that I'm compensated for the BS.

 

[erayser]

Thanks, you're right that is what it said. I will check after I get to 5gb. I am in San Francisco, so I would think there is a good chance my location is congested. But with your good luck in San Diego I may not see any throttling. We will see. Sadly, I got too excited for E3 on Monday and streamed Microsoft and Sony's presentations at work (no wifi for me here). I still have 3 weeks left in my billing month lol, so this situation is my own fault. It was a rare event for me to stream so much in one day..

LOL... My data usage jumped because of E3 and the NBA Finals...

The good news... streams were clear and no signs of slow down. Hope you experience the same in your location.

 

[macduke]

It's nice to read about some litigation that stands to benefit the consumer.

Until AT&T just passes the cost onto the consumer. If the fee was higher then they might not be able to compete by having to raise their rates significantly. That would actually hurt them.

Exactly. Thanks for nothing FCC. I dropped my unlimited as well because ATT made it almost impossible to keep it...

I'm amazed that the FCC is just now getting around to this. I've had AT&T/Cingular since 2004 and dropped them in 2012 and this issue was one of several that made me leave. I just figured they would do nothing about it. The FCC is way too late with this ruling. Where were they back around 2010 when this started becoming a problem?

To put it in context, AT&T's quarterly NET profit was $3.2B. So, $100M is a little less than 3 DAYS' net profit.

They illegally rip us off for 5 years and BILLIONS of dollars, and their "punishment" is $100M??!

And the public cheers this? It's a demonstration of the sham of "watchdog" federal agencies that really only watch over ensuring the status quo - maximum corporate profits and symbolic fines and punishments to make it look like they are doing something.

This was put really well. Unfortunately his fine does nothing and will probably be overturned in court or made even smaller.

Thankfully the FCC will get curb-stomped in court over this ridiculous fine.

Found the AT&T employee!

 

[TypeMRT]

I have some questions here:
1. Where does the ammount of 100 million go, customers or goverment? Who is the winner?
2. I know a lot of people just switch UDPs to mobile share plans due to the throtelling, Att was wrong, can they switch back?
3. What about tethering? It is also against FCC net neutrality. Att pays another fine? (please see #5)
4. What is Att next step? Too cancel all UDP? Too ullow tethering? Change nothing?
5. Don't you think Att heads just waste company's money: t-mo 4B payment, now 0.1B fine? May be it is time to change something or somebody? Instead of paying left and right they can provide better service for us or reduce price a bit.

3. I wish tethering would get unblocked after this.
4. AT&T would NEVER bulk cancel all UDP because they would have to waive termination fees and unlock those devices. That's hundreds of thousands of customers ready to be scooped up by Verizon or Sprint.

 

[Lucky XIII]

3 gb for 3g, 5gb for LTE. May I ask you what phone you have?

iPhone 4s (yeah I know... WHY?!?!!? LOL) Bought it the day it was released too. Whatever the upgrade is this October I'm in.

 

[chr1s60]

The fine is a good start, but the customers are the ones that need that $100,000,000. Give the money back to anyone that has been throttled and make them pay a fine. Why should the government get money that was wrongly taken in the first place?

 

[currocj]

Looks like AT&T is sticking to the 3GB policy. Attached is the first time I have ever received this text from them, ironic it was today.

Dude, you must be rocking a iPhone 4S or older. 3GB is for 4G (non-LTE) and older generations, and 5GB is for 4G LTE speed phones (iPhone 5 and newer).

 

[TypeMRT]

The new shared data plans are way more expensive for my situation. I have 4 iPhones on a family plan: 2 unlimited, a 3GB, & a 300MB. It's about $250 with discounts after taxes. So going to the shared 30GB plan (we use about 23GB on average) would cost about $320. It's been tough sticking with the unlimited plans but it's getting better.
Unlimited data + subsidies phones is very hard to leave.

 

[currocj]

3 gb for 3g, 5gb for LTE. May I ask you what phone you have?

Close, but, 3GB for 4G (non-LTE, HSPA) and older generations of data.

 

[currocj]

The new shared data plans are way more expensive for my situation. I have 4 iPhones on a family plan: 2 unlimited, a 3GB, & a 300MB. It's about $250 with discounts after taxes. So going to the shared 30GB plan (we use about 23GB on average) would cost about $320. It's been tough sticking with the unlimited plans but it's getting better.
Unlimited data + subsidies phones is very hard to leave.

Agreed, for me $120 for 2 lines with Unlimited -or- $180 for 10GB mobile share plan. No contest.

 

[dss10]

I used to work for AT&T then AT&T wireless in pricing/financial/marketing management and when I saw the unlimited plan come up I jumped on it and never let go. It's a good deal, in that you will all ways know what your bill will be and you can't have charges "crammed" in your bill for overages. I tried to get the ipad unlimited plan which was even better but it was canceled before I even had the time to sign up........ FYI: For all of the people who are stating that network congestion will cause service degradation, a percentage of each monthly bill (~15%) is supposed to be used for capital improvements (new towers/backhaul (tandem network)/switches and routers....) but AT&T has been diverting these funds to new business' (U-verse) that have not financially performed or worse yet dividends.

 

[imlynxy]

Close, but, 3GB for 4G (non-LTE, HSPA) and older generations of data.

HSPA is 3G, this was Att marketing trick to call it 4G.

 

[mazz0]

I'm surprised there aren't more people here saying the regulators should bugger off and The Market will take care of issues like this. You're normally such a laissez-faire audience. When it suits I suppose.

I approve, anyway.

 

[Lucky XIII]

Dude, you must be rocking a iPhone 4S or older. 3GB is for 4G (non-LTE) and older generations, and 5GB is for 4G LTE speed phones (iPhone 5 and newer).

Sadly a 4s, (64GB) kept waiting to pull the trigger thanks to this site always seeing the next best thing lol. I am done this is it this October I still haven't even picked up an iPad for the same reasoning. Total fail.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Perhaps a bigger fine is needed.