Sprint Throttles Top 1% of Data Users, No "Truly Unlimited" Data For US iPhone Users [Updated x2]

[MacRumors]

Though Sprint, the United States' newest iPhone carrier, has been running advertisements touting its "truly unlimited" network, the carrier is throttling smartphone customers who use "excessive" amounts of data, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

For those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off," [Sprint CEO Dan] Hesse said at an investor conference Thursday. He said Sprint pares back data use for about 1% of users, a practice known as throttling.

[...]

"You'd be shocked how much data you use in a month," Sprint asks in a recent television advertisement. "What happens if you go over? With Sprint, you don't have to worry; only Sprint offers truly unlimited data."

Hesse did say there were no plans for Sprint to move to tiered data plans like Verizon and AT&T have switched to in recent years, however it appears that there is no longer any US carrier that offers "truly unlimited" data plans for the iPhone.

Update: As pointed out by TechCrunch, Dow Jones seems to have misinterpreted Hesse. The throttling only applies to customers who use excessive data while roaming on partnered networks -- "a guy in his house in rural Montana" for example. Sprint's fine print notes the carrier will begin throttling after 300 MB of "off-network" data usage.

Update 2: Sprint has now clarified the situation with a blog post indicating the carrier does not throttle any customer's data usage, even for those with excessive roaming usage. The carrier does, however, have terms in place that permit it to terminate the contracts of users with heavy roaming usage, and it attempts to reach out to those customers and work with them before terminating their contracts.

Article Link: Sprint Throttles Top 1% of Data Users, No "Truly Unlimited" Data For US iPhone Users [Updated x2]

 

[ghall]

Why does this not surprise me in the least?

 

[adversus]

Original ATT is still "Unlimited" isn't it? I use tons of data a month and haven't noticed any throttling from them.

 

[Joshwawilson]

Booo! However I knew they would do this to us.

 

[dlimes13]

Original ATT is still "Unlimited" isn't it? I use tons of data a month and haven't noticed any throttling from them.

Yup, I still have it from the iPhone 3GS days by way of the grandfather law. My plan never changed and no throttling as occured. Unlimited and fast as can be.

 

[AJH1993]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

Not like sprint 3G speeds with the iPhone were fast to begin with...

 

[Eidorian]

Guys, what are you doing on your phones that needs this much data? I run my phone on Wi-fi only. I will admit I am an excessively frugal person but I talk to friends on some of those crazy +$100 plans with everything just to figure out how they can justify THAT much data usage. I have not gotten an answer yet...

I should ask again.

 

[vitzr]

It was only a matter of time. Sprint just doesn't have the resources. They're in over their heads.

 

[kolax]

Will "unlimited internet" ever truly exist on a mobile network without some sort of small print limit/throttling for excessive use?

 

[hoing]

This is no more corrupt than Apple. Apple is way more corrupt to its consumers and competition. Sorry buddy. No big deal.

 

[Sixtafoua]

"For those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off"

Correct, using as much data as you want on an unlimited plan is definitely abuse.

Why do all the carriers in the US suck?

 

[neiltc13]

I use my iPhone quite a lot and I reset it over a month ago. Since then it's reporting it has downloaded 154MB of data.

Can someone explain what these excessive users actually find to download on their phones that puts them in the top 1%?

 

[Daveoc64]

Guys, what are you doing on your phones that needs this much data? I run my phone on Wi-fi only. I will admit I am an excessively frugal person but I talk to friends on some of those crazy +$100 plans with everything just to figure out how they can justify THAT much data usage. I have not gotten an answer yet...

If you stream video content then even a 30 minute show could use 600MB+.

If you add in Apps, Web Browsing, Streaming Audio etc. or tethering with a computer then you've got a lot of usage.

 

[Slurpy2k8]

OMG SPRINT IS SO EVIL!! OUTRAGE!!!

This seems like a sane and logical move for any company. That 1% is probably consuming as much data as the rest combined, and costing Sprint just as much. There's nothing wrong for setting limits based for extreme usage and extreme outliers. You'd be naive so pretend that things can truly be unlimited, especially when increased usage costs the company money. There's absolutely nothing wrong with throttling the 1% who is doing God knows what with their devices (probably tethering and torrenting all day), so the rest can continue to enjoy near-unlimited data use. You people sound like whiny, entitled 8 year olds who have no idea of how things work. I don't even live in the US and don't give a **** about Sprint, but there's something called common sense.

 

[Joshwawilson]

I use my iPhone quite a lot and I reset it over a month ago. Since then it's reporting it has downloaded 154MB of data.

Can someone explain what these excessive users actually find to download on their phones that puts them in the top 1%?

Someone on MR posted that they purposely ran Pandora all night long on mute...those are the kind of people that made this happen

 

[iEvolution]

Wait wait wait, hold up.

If they allow you to use as much data as you want a month regardless if its throttled or not, its still technically unlimited right?

Should read there is no truly Un-throttled data plans for iPhone users in the U.S.

 

[SuprUsrStan]

OMG SPRINT IS SO EVIL!! OUTRAGE!!!

This seems like a sane and logical move for any company. That 1% is probably consuming as much data as the rest combined. There's nothing wrong for setting limits based on extreme usage.

See, that's fine. It's not like ATT, T-Mo, Verizon etc. don't throttle their top 1% of users who "abuse" (in their language) the internet.

The problem is the other companies don't bash each other claiming that they're the ONLY one who don't throttle the unlimited plan. That's where the problem is. Stop using it as a marketing ploy.

 

[srxtr]

Truly unlimited

Someone needs to teach them the definitions of "truly" and "unlimited".

I was contemplating switching over, but not any more.

 

[identity]

Not surprising at all. What I want Sprint to do is boost my dl speed! I haven't reached 1mbs in over a month. Why give me unlimited usage it takes forever to load one page?

 

[Tiger8]

All carriers do that

All carriers, everywhere in the world, do this. It is called the 'Fair usage' policy, where a carrier justifies a throttle / ban based on the arguement that a single user's excessive usage could severely compromise other users usage.

 

[Sixtafoua]

There's nothing wrong for setting limits based on extreme usage.

Sure, but on an unlimited plan, it's dishonest for a company to limit the plan. Also, it bugs me that there are people that have signed up for 2 year contracts expecting unlimited data for the life of their contract, only to have this new policy come up.

 

[Beachguy]

The top 1%?


Occupy: Sprint

 

[webman2k]

I love how everyone screams over this. So what? Unless you're downloading and streaming on your phone ALL day you're not going to see this. This throttling is only in place for those who wish to "abuse" the service. People who use their phones as hotspots to share Internet with others, or to provide fast access for home computers. Second, throttling doesn't make it "limited", just slower.

If enough people in your area were allowed to leach the service, YOUR speeds would suffer. The throttling of these folks prevents that. How is that bad?

 

[fins831]

Its one thing to say you don't throttle when you do, but its another to completely make it the foundation of your entire 'Come to Sprint' iPhone campaign...

What a joke...false advertising.

 

[KPOM]

Since they have ads that point specifically to T-Mobile's throttling, could someone claim false advertising? Or are they simply saying that they could throttle people they think are abusing the system (i.e. not simply throttling everyone in the top 1%)?