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

[or8ital]

It really doesn't matter what you consider.

What matters is did you get what you contracted for?

You got no overage charges.
You got throttled after 5G.
Those are the terms you signed up for.

If you don't like it, cancel. Just, please, don't feel so entitled to something you didn't buy.

A couple flaws in your statement.

- the months I got throttled appeared to be due to att network issues as the usage on my phone didn't match the usage they state. ATT made changes which brought the usage back in line

- att claims to text users with a warning which is false at least in my case

So stop acting like ATT is completely innocent here.

 

[pdaholic]

A couple flaws in your statement.

- the months I got throttled appeared to be due to att network issues as the usage on my phone didn't match the usage they state. ATT made changes which brought the usage back in line

- att claims to text users with a warning which is false at least in my case

So stop acting like ATT is completely innocent here.

That guy seems to know only one word, "entitled." Must be the word of the day on the children's network.

 

[or8ital]

That guy seems to know only one word, "entitled." Must be the word of the day on the children's network.

No kidding!!

 

[GrecoISU]

Stop being cheapskates and get you a higher tiered plan, which is now being doubled. Problem solved.

And instead of getting a subsidized phone, we finance the phone. Wonderful plan.

 

[jonathan1683]

I think the problem is that it's not without limits obviously the speed they put you at is useless and far from unlimited. It should be called the 5 GIG data plan with unlimited throttled bandwidth. They are just milking the populous that has no idea what bandwidth is which probably 90 % of their customers. They are tricking them into thinking they are getting something they are not because they never reach the data caps or even if they did wouldn't understand what was wrong anyways. All they know is no overage charge woohoo customer for life.

----------

what else I also find funny is that my girlfriend reached her data limit yesterday and they didnt blink and eye at charging another 10$ without my permission on my plan they just did it. Why didn't they start throttling her so she couldn't pass that limit? Or at least ask us if we wanted to be throttle when it would benefit us?

 

[7racer]

GOOD!

ATT hold back on plan benefits if you have an unlimited plan. Like the inability to use the hotspot option with the unlimited plan!

 

[brand]

Just got my 5GB threshold throttling text today.

Ironic.

There is really nothing ironic about it.

 

[gatorknight904]

I have had an unlimited data plan with AT&T since 2006 or 2007. I have gone over 5GB thousands of times and never received a txt message about throttling. They are lying about everyone getting a txt message. I usually notice my speed slows down, then i got check my usage and sure enough i just eclipsed the 5GB mark with no notification. It just happened this month.

I hope the FTC wins this because it isn't fair.

 

[boccabella]

The verb throttle means to regulate, not to reduce; AT&T has no chance of winning this case.

 

[TallManNY]

Your understanding of how data impacts ATT is flawed as well. Sheer data usage has nearly no effect on AT&T.

Bandwidth is the problem. Trying to get thousands of people to access the same Internet on a limited amount of spectrum is just asking for trouble. It doesn't matter if all of these individuals are using a minimal amount of data. If they try to access it at the same time, the network will choke. Things like carrier aggregation and VoLTE will only make things worse.

What ATT should do is either subject all users to throttling, or changed to a tiered speed model. That way they might actually be able to manage their congestion. As it is now, throttling a small portion of users no matter when or where they use their data accomplishes nothing, except for incentivizing them to switch to a tiered plan.

I think if you were on a priced data plan you would use less data. Isn't that the point.

But yes, I see your point. It is mainly the number of folks connected to a tower than the amount of data each person is using at that moment.

But my basic point is that pricing that is simple and which is based on data used makes the most sense to me. We should also have different price for time of day when you use the data. But that is another story.

It will probably be moot soon. AT&T will probably end these unlimited plans. I know that folks are "grandfathered" in. It seems those folks feel they have a special right that goes with them into the future. I don't know. If you are under contract, that makes sense, but eventually the contract ends.

----------

I'm sorry, but you're the one that's delusional. I have never stated nor do I feel that an unlimited data plan is my inalienable right. AT&T is the one that offers it to me every time I commit to a new contract with them, which happens to be every two years in my case. I don't demand it or even ask for it. AT&T offers it to me.

Why should AT&T have a right to advertise and offer me an unlimited data plan, and subsequently not spell out the exact terms of usage in the contract, and then arbitrarily do whatever they think is best? What if AT&T decided tomorrow that 500 mb of data should be the limit before Unlimited data plans are slowed to a screeching halt? It would be no different than what they are doing today. It is not clearly spelled out in the terms of the contract that they offered to me and we both agreed on.

Bryan

Weird. I haven't been offered an unlimited plan. I can't find it on the AT&T website. I remember getting unlimited data with my iPad 1. But that was a long time ago. I didn't think I had a right to it forever. (Side note, iPad is still working and has been handed down to my nephew.) Why do you get offered unlimited plans?

Well I guess AT&T doesn't have the right to put in these restrictions. But the argument that "unlimited" literally means unlimited in any context seems excessive. I mean if you were to just plug your phone in and set it on constant video streaming 24/7, do you think AT&T should just take that? Or wouldn't that be abuse of the system?

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

So like others my first reaction is that of COURSE unlimited means unlimited and that they shouldn't throttle after a certain amount. I have Verizon unlimited and enjoy that's it's truly unlimited and I can use it as a hotspot too. AT&T's perspective is generally that they are giving you an unlimited amount of data but controlling how fast you can actually use it.

Let me ask a similar question.

If I go into a restaurant that heavily advertises unlimited breadsticks, can I reasonably expect UNLIMITED breadsticks? Or is it reasonable for the restaurant to say sure, it's unlimited, but we'll only bring out 1 per person at the table at a time?

I think we'd mostly agree that the latter is acceptable and that a request for 1000 breadsticks would be declined. Is that really any different than what the carriers face, where 95% of customers use 2GB or less and probably 5% are far more than the other 95% combined?

Certainly bandwidth is less of a tangible quantity than a breadstick -- it's harder to argue that I am being wasteful by using 100GB. But, let's not act like bandwidth is an unlimited resource, either. It does cost money to expand capacity and if the bulk of that is being forced by a few users sucking down enormous amounts of data then they are indeed a very real cost to the carriers and to all of us.

Dunno what the right answer is, but I do think it's far more complex than the FTC's argument that unlimited means unlimited.

No, because even with data consumption, you're not using it ahead of time. You're using at as you use it. So as long as they steadily continue to bring out one breadstick at a time, it's working fine.

It's when they start giving you a crumb of a breadstick each time they come out. They're still technically giving you something that constitutes as part of a breadstick, but it's no longer in the expected form that anyone would consider to be a breadstick.

 

[groovyd]

and you know who is paying their legal fees to fight against being unfair? their customers are hahaha.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Weird. I haven't been offered an unlimited plan. I can't find it on the AT&T website. I remember getting unlimited data with my iPad 1. But that was a long time ago. I didn't think I had a right to it forever. (Side note, iPad is still working and has been handed down to my nephew.) Why do you get offered unlimited plans?

AT&T offers me an unlimited data plan every time I ask to enter into a new contract with them. They do so because I had the unlimited data plan before. By all means, they don't have to (and they shouldn't) if they want to get rid of the unlimited plan altogether. But they offer it, and they offer it as unlimited, yet nowhere in my contract does it say that once I exceed a set threshold will they throttle my data.

Well I guess AT&T doesn't have the right to put in these restrictions. But the argument that "unlimited" literally means unlimited in any context seems excessive. I mean if you were to just plug your phone in and set it on constant video streaming 24/7, do you think AT&T should just take that? Or wouldn't that be abuse of the system?

I agree with you, people should not do that and yes, I personally would consider it abuse. But that's not the case here. I go over 3 GB one month, maybe two months max in a given year, and they cripple the usage of my device on their network. And they say it's to protect network resources, yet they gladly let other people pay to use more data.

The real problem here is that its not written into the contract, and they are doing whatever they please.

Bryan

 

[baypharm]

Yes Yes!! So glad to see some balls by the FTC - because the FCC is just too cozy with AT&T. I hope they sue them all to Hell and back. The contract is simple and clear. Unlimited 4G LTE data - no limits. AT&T's claim that the unlimited data users are slowing down the network is hogwash pure and dirty. Why? Because they will gladly give you a few hundred GB of data a month if you are willing to pay for it. Where's the slowdown there? Zero. AT&T is one greedy company and woe to all the Direct TV customers if the FCC allows AT&T to swallow up Direct TV. It's gonna get dirty people.

 

[Mr. Gates]

The definition of a jerk is someone who argues in favor of the wrong side because it doesn't effect them.

I see a lot of stupid comments here which basically amount to "well I don't have an unlimited plan so I'm going to be a dick and say you don't have a right to it either"

 

[ktuck]

Source? My guess is that's way too high.

44% according to this article. The exact number might not hold up to the highest standards of scientific rigor, but it's probably better than a wild guess.

https://gigaom.com/2014/07/21/repor...-plans-that-havent-been-available-since-2010/

 

[ktuck]

Here is the ironic thing about this. If AT&T wasn't informing people that they were throttling people, then how does every single person know that their doing it? Everyone replying here knows they've been doing it. ...

No irony here. Myself and a few other posters have stated that they knew nothing about throttling until it happened to them.

Each time I renewed I wasn't sold on the concept of using unlimited data, I was sold on the concept of retaining my Unlimited Data Plan because at some point in the future it would be valuable. That "point in the future" came for me a couple of months ago, and I was furious to get a text warning me that I was approaching 5GB. Not 30GB like the other plan they offer at the same price, but at 5GB.

So, after years of paying more than I had to, just to retain my golden Unlimited Data plan, and years of being unable to use my cell phone as a hotspot (before decent smart phones, when a hotspot would have been really handy), I suddenly find out that this coveted plan is actually a scam against those who are actually AT&T's best customers?

The business model goes like this, Sell a product that doesn't exist, Turn Away buyers who discover the actual nature of the product, but Retain the buyers who have no way of knowing that they've been sold a pig in a poke.

If AT&T had wanted to be sincere, they could have simply canceled all of the unlimited data subscribers years ago and just explained that the smartphone changed the game. Maybe offered some minor concession to those who had been told that their plan was grandfathered. But they didn't do that, they just had a private chuckle about the predicament they found themselves in and the huge profits it was spinning off. Dollars to donuts that the FTC investigation is going to come up with a whistleblower who saw this coming years ago.

 

[giantfan1224]

Perhaps you don't recall that the DoJ opposed the AT&T / T-Mobile merger on antitrust grounds? I don't think what I said requires much justification beyond that.

The merger was opposed because of the potential near monopoly that it would've created, not because it already was. AT&T is not even the largest U.S. carrier. Please explain how AT&T as presently constituted would qualify as a near monopoly in your mind.

 

[ktuck]

No, you are 100% wrong.
AT&T specifically contracted ...

No, you are 100% wrong. Regardless of what AT&T hid in the fine print of their disclosures, they continually and purposely REPRESENTED through their agents that the plan included unlimited data and that it had such great value that it should be retained even if at a greater cost and even if it wasn't of immediate value... because it would be of great value in the future.

When I started checking this out, with hours on the phone with AT&T and at two different AT&T stores with several conversations at each one, every representative said the same thing. "You don't want to give up your Unlimited Data Plan because you won't ever get it back."

But when I asked what it was good for, every single one of them was at a loss as to how to explain the benefits of having data delivered at a rate that makes its use absolutely impractical.


Edit: I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet.

 

[Archer1440]

I feel for these customers, honestly.

Try coming to Japan, where foreigners always seem to think we are so technologically advanced.

Ha. I'm sitting in a lounge at NRT right now getting ready to fly home. I'm in JPN 4-8 x/year. Wifi in JPN is a joke for a traveler. And try using CC's in restaurants outside the major cities.

People who have never been here would be shocked at how much JPN is still a cash transaction based economy.

On the positive side I had a lot more LTE connections with the iPhone 6+ on this trip, usually only get 3g on SoftBank...

 

[goobot]

Data speeds in 2007 would allow someone to use maybe 4-5GB a month at unlimited. Nowadays on AT&T LTE, you can use 10-20TB. They have BY FAR the fastest network and can't jeopardize it for a few.

It's quite obvious you are pulling numbers out of thin air. EDGE was around 1mb, LTE is at its maximum 40mb. If someone could only use 5gigs on EDGE then by your logic they tops would be able to use 200gigs. Additionally att pulled this plan when 3G was the standard so to compare the situation to EDGE is beyond bias and ridiculous. 3G got like 3mb speeds so again that's 13X more data. So if people were using only 5gigs then then now people would be using 50gigs TOPS. Again this is going by your logic.

 

[giantfan1224]

44% according to this article. The exact number might not hold up to the highest standards of scientific rigor, but it's probably better than a wild guess.

https://gigaom.com/2014/07/21/repor...-plans-that-havent-been-available-since-2010/

A survey of 500 willing participants is hardly convincing. With carrier turnover, especially now as fierce as competition is, and since AT&T has not offered an unlimited data plan since 2010, 44% has to be too high.

 

[rkuo]

The merger was opposed because of the potential near monopoly that it would've created, not because it already was. AT&T is not even the largest U.S. carrier. Please explain how AT&T as presently constituted would qualify as a near monopoly in your mind.

You are being obtuse. AT&T is by far the larger of the two. So yes, they are near it.

 

[Peter K.]

The definition of a jerk is someone who argues in favor of the wrong side because it doesn't effect them.

I see a lot of stupid comments here which basically amount to "well I don't have an unlimited plan so I'm going to be a dick and say you don't have a right to it either"

Agreed; and it's been that way for years.

 

[ktuck]

...since AT&T has not offered an unlimited data plan since 2010, 44% has to be too high.

You asked me what I based my numbers on. What do you base your estimate on?

When speaking to sales reps at the stores, nobody ever said anything that lead me to believe that a good percentage of their long-time customers weren't on the Unlimited plan. And I've spoken to quite a few people who still have it.

When first offered, it was a very competitive deal, so most would have signed up for it and renewed under the same plan. I'm a pretty astute shopper and still fell for the dupe. New customers would obviously not sign up for but why is it hard to believe that are large number of existing customers haven't followed the sales reps advice and hung on to theirs?

Also, looking at the survey, the number of people on AT&T's unlimited plan is compared to 22% on Verizon's and 78% on both Sprint and T-Mobile, so it's certainly not out of the norm.

And then, there are all these threads where people are fighting to keep their Unlimited Data Plans. I don't get it, is there something I don't know or are all these people falling for some dastardly plot?