Hmm it just may be an interesting position that AT&T will take. We'll see how this goes.
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FTC to get AT&T Unlimited Data back!
- Thread starter mdlooker
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Hmm it just may be an interesting position that AT&T will take. We'll see how this goes.
The lawsuit just alleges that AT&T didn't properly notify unlimited customers that they would be throttled and that the word "unlimited" is misleading in this case.
I completely agree and the FTC has a solid case in my opinion. An individual AT&T customer won a judgement against AT&T for basically the same reason.
However, even if the FTC wins there is nothing about this case that I believe would require AT&T to remove the throttle on unlimited plans. They may need to pay a small restitution to current and former unlimited customers and be better about informing people. They may even have to stop calling these grandfathered plans "unlimited".
This is AT&T we are talking about and the senior leadership is even more stubborn than Verizon. It would be great if they stopped this throttling BS but I don't think they will.
I completely agree and the FTC has a solid case in my opinion. An individual AT&T customer won a judgement against AT&T for basically the same reason.
However, even if the FTC wins there is nothing about this case that I believe would require AT&T to remove the throttle on unlimited plans. They may need to pay a small restitution to current and former unlimited customers and be better about informing people. They may even have to stop calling these grandfathered plans "unlimited".
This is AT&T we are talking about and the senior leadership is even more stubborn than Verizon. It would be great if they stopped this throttling BS but I don't think they will.
I'm normally not a big fan of the FTC, but on this one, I think they do actually have a case. It's disingenuous for carriers to throttle "unlimited" data at 5GB claiming "network congestion" but the run a "double data" promotion for an entire month STARTING at 30GB and going all the way up to 120GB of data. So apparently if you pay $70/month, you're "congesting" the network at 5GB, but if you pay $130/month, you can stream 30GB per month just fine.
The problem is that the carriers marketed these plans as "unlimited" back in the days when they never envisioned the huge explosion in data traffic from smartphones. That was shortsighted. If they had called them "5GB" plans back in the day, that would have seemed like a lot of data and it wouldn't have created this issue today.
We have this hateful **** in the UK and it's something that REALLY grates my gears.
For me, unLIMITed means no LIMITs and when a provider is slowing down the speeds you receive on your device, they are actually LIMITing how much you can transfer/download.
They may claim you can download an unlimited amount of (as an example) music, but by slowing the connection down, you are able to download less than if they didn't.
We have it with lots of ISPs in the UK and I hate it, I hope whatever organisation it is that's gunning for AT&T nail their balls to the wall and the fallout is felt in the UK.
We in the UK support you brothers!
For me, unLIMITed means no LIMITs and when a provider is slowing down the speeds you receive on your device, they are actually LIMITing how much you can transfer/download.
They may claim you can download an unlimited amount of (as an example) music, but by slowing the connection down, you are able to download less than if they didn't.
We have it with lots of ISPs in the UK and I hate it, I hope whatever organisation it is that's gunning for AT&T nail their balls to the wall and the fallout is felt in the UK.
We in the UK support you brothers!
This.
Couldn't agree with you more. It's not really about "network congestion" as it is about a profit margin. Since they didn't want to come out and get rid of "unlimited" plans all together, they're doing everything else in order to get you to switch until they finally decide to just force you.
I wouldn't be as mad with the throttling if it were at 10GB. But I'm one of the guys that says "unlimited means unlimited".
Well, I get unlimited Internet from TWC, but they sure as hell throttle us when the network gets bogged down.
What I CAN see happening here is that AT&T will not be permitted to throttle anyone UNLESS there's a situation where the network is overburdened and they'll be able to throttle people on these older plans before they can start to throttle people who pay for X gigs of data a month.
Me, I'd like to see "rollover" data.
That would make the new plans pretty much perfect and would eliminate the need for unlimited for the vast majority of subscribers. In fact, I am thinking that all but about 10% of the people left on unlimited would bail if they could roll over data.
It's the possibility of going over that freaks a person out, NOT the notion that they will want to use 50 GB of data a day or some such nonsense.
This Straight Talk commercial reminds me of how I need to deal with AT&T (or any wireless company, for that matter)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Djq_bW6GOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Djq_bW6GOI
Actually the FCC has looked at this for years and not taken action. This case was brought up by the FTC.
We discussed this case in my Regulatory Affairs class and the case is unusual in that the FTC doesn't normally step into the FCC's area of expertise. Many inside Washington see this more as a turf battle between the FTC and FCC than anything else.
Also, keep in mind that 1,000's of cases and complaints are lodged by the FTC and FCC every year and the vast majority never go to court, nor do they result much in the results of penalties or changes. A typical outcome would be not for AT&T to deliver "true unlimited data" but rather to agree that they won't advertise it as such going forward.
I also read that the FTC (and not the FCC) was also looking at similar cases against other carriers (T-Mobile was the only other named carrier although I thought they did offer true unlimited by the tone of several other posters).
This gets said every time the unlimited topic gets brought up. Where do you get they promise data not speed? When I signed the last contract, and every bill I get. It's says iPhone LTE data package. If my speeds are throttled then I am not getting LTE am I? That is what my package says I am paying for.
Sure AT&T may get bogged down at points, and the speeds are great, but slowing speeds on purpose is not the same.
It's in the fine print https://www.att.com/shop/en/legalte...are&siteId=je6NUbpObpQ-2vaqsJUGBhWBsnKb69ZZPA
Here's the difference though. TWC offers unlimited data for all their plans, but charge for increases in max speed. And when the network gets bogged down, the throttling occurs evenly across the affected area of the network (more or less). Furthermore, if there isn't congestion on the network, there won't be any throttling.
AT&T is throttling specific customers who pay less to have more data, and do so with a hard cap. I could be the only person on AT&T's entire network, and if I have unlimited data, I'm throttled at 5 GB. And I may be throttled within that first 5 GB if the network is congested. It's BS.
Guess what, you agreed to whatever changes they made when you renewed your contract every couple years or so since 2009.
Ah, but there are no defined LTE speeds
the speeds advertised are usually theoretical maximums
Ah, but there are no defined LTE speeds
Yes, but LTE is not reduced speeds when AT&T thinks it should be. LTE is the maximum speed you get, but limiting it on purpose is not the same.
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That is not what was promised when I first signed up for AT&T unlimited data. Sure the fine print has changed, but even had I not singed another contract. They would have still changed my data plan to throttled. Singing the contract means nothing. Had I bought unlocked phones since what 2010 when they changed unlimited. They would have still throttled me after 5GB without singing a terms of use. So in that case no I have not been promised just data.
I typically use 10 gigs a month. They sell 50 gig plans and those customers don't get throttled. So AT&Ts argument that unlimited users are being throttled due to tower congestion doesn't hold water. I hope I get my unlimited data unthrottled again.
IMO this will finally give ATT the justification to eliminate the unlimited plans all together. To be honest Im surprised they have kept grandfathering in people this long. You did have to read the fine print in order to understand what their definition of unlimited was, but it's been there. Heck I remember getting texted that in about to get throttled when I got near 5GB.
When the government and lawyers get involved it's unlikely that it will end up being good for the consumers.
When the government and lawyers get involved it's unlikely that it will end up being good for the consumers.
So did you not buy any subsidized iPhones since 2009? If you did, then you did agree to new contracts electronically.
I would actually be ok if the FTC and AT&T settle on capping data speeds to 8mbps much like they do for Cricket. That would allow much of everything to still function well and should still "free up" some congestion for tiered customers that are paying more, basically. Again, out of principle I don't like it, but that is definitely a lesser evil than what we have now.