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FTC Levies $40M Fine Against TracFone for Throttling Unlimited Data Customers
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Here we go again.
I'm always amazed at the amount of folks on here that will defend the big telecom's deceptive practices. AT&T has always been deceptive about this and they should not be allowed to advertise one thing, but deliver something else in practice. As we're seeing now, the FCC agrees that this is wrong.
Bryan
I haven't read all the fine print that's out there to be read, but it seems to me that the carriers would have a pretty solid defense of throttling because in pretty much every carrier commercial I've seen, there's a little asterisk next to the words "Speeds and coverage not guaranteed" or some other similar verbiage.
I've never seen a carrier TOS agreement that says anything along the lines of "You are entitled to have as much bandwidth as we are able to give you at all times". Even the shared data plan my family has with Verizon doesn't give us any guarantee of coverage (much less throughput) that I've been able to find.
If I call Verizon to complain because I'm only getting 10 Mbps down today whereas yesterday I got 60 Mbps down at the same spot, the rep is probably going to roll their eyes, laugh at me under their breath, and tell me that speeds are not guaranteed and can be impacted by any number of factors and that'll be the end of the conversation.
Don't misunderstand -- I'm not a fan of the carriers as a general rule. I'm just not sure that the carriers don't have a reasonable defense here. Now, if they were advertising "Unlimited" and then imposing a hard data cap and telling people that if they wanted to use more data they'd have to pay more, that would be an entirely different story (i.e. bait and switch).
I've never seen a carrier TOS agreement that says anything along the lines of "You are entitled to have as much bandwidth as we are able to give you at all times". Even the shared data plan my family has with Verizon doesn't give us any guarantee of coverage (much less throughput) that I've been able to find.
If I call Verizon to complain because I'm only getting 10 Mbps down today whereas yesterday I got 60 Mbps down at the same spot, the rep is probably going to roll their eyes, laugh at me under their breath, and tell me that speeds are not guaranteed and can be impacted by any number of factors and that'll be the end of the conversation.
Don't misunderstand -- I'm not a fan of the carriers as a general rule. I'm just not sure that the carriers don't have a reasonable defense here. Now, if they were advertising "Unlimited" and then imposing a hard data cap and telling people that if they wanted to use more data they'd have to pay more, that would be an entirely different story (i.e. bait and switch).
Wrong, it was advertised as UNLIMITED 3G Data ....Not , Unlimited 56k
That's why people signed up.
No shoo ,go play in the dirt or eat paste or whatever it is people like you do.
Let the grown ups speak.
IIRC, Straight Talk itself is owned by TracFone, which is owned by America Movil - one of Carlos Slim's companies.
Straight Talk service is an MVNO that operates/overlays on ATT.
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Throttling speeds is one thing. Making it unusable another, which is what AT&T does.
Losers?
I'm not sure I would call the group "Losers" when you haven't correctly understood the subject matter. Additionally, if you actually read the article, you would see that it was based on throttling that existed BEFORE it was presented to the customer via contractual updates.
In other words, the fine is for throttling a product without any legal notice. Not for throttling people on current contracts.
Everyone to whom throttling would be relevant knows about throttling, and nows the carriers do it. And its in the contract that they can do it. It's not like this stuff is a secret. So they did it on some people, and those people are now pissed because they don't like the terms of the contract that they signed anymore. But worry not, bureaucrats to the rescue. Let's just steal their money back because they're not happy with their decision anymore.
Losers.
I'm not sure I would call the group "Losers" when you haven't correctly understood the subject matter. Additionally, if you actually read the article, you would see that it was based on throttling that existed BEFORE it was presented to the customer via contractual updates.
In other words, the fine is for throttling a product without any legal notice. Not for throttling people on current contracts.
Hmmmm...T-Mobile and Sprint?
Always funny that T-Mobile advertises unlimited data but have multiple pricing points. Totally misleading advertising and when they throttle, the phone is barely usable. But this has been a sleazy practice for the last 10 years, kind of suspicious that now that T-Mobile is gaining traction the Govt finally cares.
Always funny that T-Mobile advertises unlimited data but have multiple pricing points. Totally misleading advertising and when they throttle, the phone is barely usable. But this has been a sleazy practice for the last 10 years, kind of suspicious that now that T-Mobile is gaining traction the Govt finally cares.
Always funny that T-Mobile advertises unlimited data but have multiple pricing points. Totally misleading advertising and when they throttle, the phone is barely usable. But this has been a sleazy practice for the last 10 years, kind of suspicious that now that T-Mobile is gaining traction the Govt finally cares.
t-mobile openly says how much is LTE and how much is slow data. some of the pre-paid carriers had it as small print you had to find
When is this coming to AT&T? I have an old unlimited plan which is full speed up to 5gb. (usually 5-10MB/s)
Once I go over 5gb, they throttle so badly that it drops down to 0.1 - 0.2 MB/s. That's 2-4% of the original speed.
I'm not terribly opposed to REASONABLY throttling people at some point, but dropping it to levels where google maps can't even refresh is ridiculous. Something like 1-2 MB/s should be the absolute minimum they can throttle too.
0.1-.2 only really lets you do email and really, really slow browsing.
When I traveled through Vietnam recently, it was $6 for 1gb of data per month at fast speeds (3MB/s), and after that they throttled you to 1MB/s. $6 ******** dollars. Traveling through Colombia had a similar plan for $12.
Once I go over 5gb, they throttle so badly that it drops down to 0.1 - 0.2 MB/s. That's 2-4% of the original speed.
I'm not terribly opposed to REASONABLY throttling people at some point, but dropping it to levels where google maps can't even refresh is ridiculous. Something like 1-2 MB/s should be the absolute minimum they can throttle too.
0.1-.2 only really lets you do email and really, really slow browsing.
When I traveled through Vietnam recently, it was $6 for 1gb of data per month at fast speeds (3MB/s), and after that they throttled you to 1MB/s. $6 ******** dollars. Traveling through Colombia had a similar plan for $12.
They don't. 3g speeds can hit as high as 4 or 5 MB/s. AT&T throttles down to around 0.1 - 0.2.
The thing is, "3G Data" is an extremely ambiguous term. I haven't seen any carrier quantify the actual throughput numbers that they "guarantee" when it comes to comparing 2G (Edge), 3G, HSPA+, and LTE. Carriers don't make throughput guarantees as a general rule -- at least I've never seen a throughput guarantee from a wireless carrier.
Unlike our cable or DSL internet connections, cellular data is not tiered in terms of throughput. Some might argue that it should be; but as of now, it's not. I can get 0.3 Mbps over a saturated LTE connection and I can get the same speed over a 3G connection.
As far as the carrier is concerned, as long as your phone says "3G" at the top, you have a 3G connection. And I don't think people signed up because the offer was "Unlimited 3G Data". Most consumers don't understand the difference between 2G, 3G, and 4G as it applies to the everyday use of the device. They just know that each new "G" is supposed to be faster than the previous ones. Most people signed up, I suspect, because they saw the word "Unlimited".
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Fine. I was planning on changing carriers now that AT&T has been harassing me. I'm not truly getting an unlimited service anyways. Might as well change my plan.
Wrong, but thanks for playing. You are correct that grandfathering doesn't mean it is unlimited for life, but it definitely means that you are supposed to have unlimited for the life of your contract. AT&T is required to go by your contract or they are in breach of contract. Simple. That isn't to say that AT&T can't decide at any time that they no longer will allow grandfathered plans and thus, any new contracts going forward will have to change plans.
Good, I hope AT&T is next.
With AT&T I'm still throttled even if my current usage on the billing cycle is under 5GB with my so called "unlimited" plan.
The only heavy things I use my iPhone for are safari, pandora, FB, IG, SC & chatting on Google hangouts.
Those combined put me around 7-8GB/month.
With AT&T I'm still throttled even if my current usage on the billing cycle is under 5GB with my so called "unlimited" plan.
The only heavy things I use my iPhone for are safari, pandora, FB, IG, SC & chatting on Google hangouts.
Those combined put me around 7-8GB/month.
Agreed. The *only* thing keeping me with AT&T is the unlimited data plan I've had for so long. If it disappears, I'll finally consider leaving AT&T (for real).
I'm always amazed at the amount of people on here that root for the corporations and not for the customer.
Most things in law and regulations rely on what is reasonable. It is reasonable to assume that unlimited data means you get to use any amount of data during the period purchased at speeds consistant with other users in your network area.
Now, corps can put all the stipulations they want in the fine print. But if they advertise to get your business one way while using fine print to further clarify to the point where it voids the ad...that's a bait and switch and it's wrong.
People that support corps that use these tactics over customers will always amaze me.
Throttling customers on unlimited plans to the point where their data is unusable is wrong. The corps know throttling is wrong. That's why the corps are dumping unlimited plans. Because they were never really unlimited and now they are getting called on their shenanigans & paying for misleading the public.
I held on to my 3 unlimited plans until 2 weeks ago. With throttling it wasn't worth keeping. Data rollover was the only thing that convinced me to rid myself of those expensive farce plans.
Most things in law and regulations rely on what is reasonable. It is reasonable to assume that unlimited data means you get to use any amount of data during the period purchased at speeds consistant with other users in your network area.
Now, corps can put all the stipulations they want in the fine print. But if they advertise to get your business one way while using fine print to further clarify to the point where it voids the ad...that's a bait and switch and it's wrong.
People that support corps that use these tactics over customers will always amaze me.
Throttling customers on unlimited plans to the point where their data is unusable is wrong. The corps know throttling is wrong. That's why the corps are dumping unlimited plans. Because they were never really unlimited and now they are getting called on their shenanigans & paying for misleading the public.
I held on to my 3 unlimited plans until 2 weeks ago. With throttling it wasn't worth keeping. Data rollover was the only thing that convinced me to rid myself of those expensive farce plans.
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I think they should throttle down to 3g speeds...or disable LTE for the remainder of the plan with the option of having customers able to pay a fee to re enable LTE for the next 5GB. This would be unlimited data but you would have the option for a higher speed.
I don't agree that we got unlimited data. The throttling was so severe as to make the data side of the phone unusable. If they had slowed me down to inconvenience, that would have been one thing. But crawling to a dead stop is quite another.
I had 3 lines. Only one went over, but all three were
in essence, shut down.
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Exactly. I wouldn't expect many changes to those grandfathered plans. AT&T & VZW are walking on eggshells when it comes to things like taking away features these days. The little magenta carrier has them very, very concerned...