When you're avoiding your high-speed data allotment by a massive amount...
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T-Mobile to Restrict Unlimited Customers Using Up to 2,000 GB of Data Per Month
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When you're avoiding your high-speed data allotment by a massive amount...
T-Mobile CEO John Legere has announced that the U.S. carrier will begin taking action against customers with unlimited 4G LTE data plans that deliberately violate the company's terms and conditions by masking excessive tethering usage as smartphone data.
T-Mobile notes that less than 1% of customers are using apps or other methods to blow past their Smartphone Mobile HotSpot allotment, which is included free with every Simple Choice plan but capped at up to 7GB per month. The carrier says that, in some cases, these customers are using up to 2TB (2,000 GB) of data per month.T-Mobile says that customers who continue to have excessive tethering usage will first be warned, and then lose access to their unlimited 4G LTE smartphone data plan and be moved to an entry-level Simple Choice plan if they do not comply. T-Mobile began informing customers about the crackdown on network abusers today and has posted a detailed FAQ on its support forum.
T-Mobile prepaid and MetroPCS customers are not affected at this time.
Article Link: T-Mobile to Restrict Unlimited Customers Using Up to 2,000 GB of Data Per Month
2TB per month, I doubt my household uses even close to that much on our cable connection.
If you need more tethered data just "once or twice" most normal people would just pay the extra $10 to get more data.
This isn't like AT&T throttling actual unlimited customers - people sign up with the 5GB limit plainly stated. If you don't think it is fair you don't hack around it, you just sign up with another carrier.
Well because you actually get cell service by having T-Mobile. And even if you just want to use it for tethering to a computer, you can still go wherever you want, unlike staying at home with your Time Warner service.
T-Mobile already includes tethering in all of their plans and offer options up to like 15GB I believe. If someone needs to tether hundreds of GBs then they need to get an ISP, not a cellular provider.
Unlimited data on Verizon is 100% unlimited. No throttling, no caps, no restrictions. $29.99 for unlimited data on your phone, and $30 for unlimited mobile hotspot.
It is unlimited with restrictions on how you can use it. The unlimited part refers to mobile usage not tethering.
UNLIMITED DATA is data, no matter how you use it. Again, this is carriers getting cute with the word. If you don't mean unlimited in every sense, stop using the word.
I'm aware of that, but what could one need to be doing on the go that consumes 2TB or data? I can't think of anything. It's highly likely that they're using this data in their homes.
It's a regional limit. We have no limit in Denver.
The word UNLIMITED means there is no "high-speed data allotment." Looks like they need a new word.
unlimited |ˌənˈlimitid| adjective not limited or restricted in terms of number, quantity, or extent
Again, need is irrelevant. They are using their unlimited data to do as they wish. T-Mobile, stop using that word. Simply start using LIMITED data up to XXXX GB. Very simple. You live and die by your words.
READ. It's unlimited on your PHONE. Not on your computer (or apparently the neighborhood for some). Unlimited phone data, 7GB tethering data. Those are great numbers for the price compared to everyone else in the industry, but lets **** on them anyway.
Right. They aren't limiting how much you use the data. However, tethering usage is subject to throttling after you use your high-speed tethering allotment. They're going after those who avoid their limit. Hard to go against that.
I agree with furi0usbee. Is 2TB excessive? Yes. But what carriers need to understand is that if you offer unlimited data, you need to understand that some users will actually take you up on that offer. Just because it is no longer financially viable for them to offer that to those users for what they are using, doesn't mean they should find ways to stop them from using it. As John said himself, it's only 0.01% of users.
And yes 7GB of tethering is listed in the TOS, however the TOS are also several pages long. Carriers need to stop getting cute by saying they offer truly unlimited data, but then have clauses such as throttling if you use more than 20GB of data and are in a congested area, throttling if using torrent apps on your phone, and now throttling of apps used to tether data. Unlimited to customers is not the same as what carriers really mean.
Technically these people are using an app on their phone, using their phone data, and that app is using the 2TB.
And yes 7GB of tethering is listed in the TOS, however the TOS are also several pages long. Carriers need to stop getting cute by saying they offer truly unlimited data, but then have clauses such as throttling if you use more than 20GB of data and are in a congested area, throttling if using torrent apps on your phone, and now throttling of apps used to tether data. Unlimited to customers is not the same as what carriers really mean.
Technically these people are using an app on their phone, using their phone data, and that app is using the 2TB.
My guess would be these "users" are groups that use it as a internet connection. 100-50mbit/s goes a long way on a shared connection.
Well that's even worse. Simply put a hard cap when tethering data hits 7GB, using their hotspot feature. So they are using the honor system?
They do, this is for people using third party apps or jailbreak/root methods to bypass this.
Based on your logic, I can go to an 'all you can eat' buffet, and go back the second day cause I wasn't done eating. Before you argue that they're different situations, you read the word 'unlimited' and just ignored everything else. I read all you can eat and ignored everything else.
It was sold as an unlimited data for your phone, with a bucket of limited data (tethering) for your non-phone devices. AFAIK, that was always the offer.
T-Mobile isn't changing the offer, like AT&T did when they starting tethering unlimited plans at 5GB.
T-Mobile is simply enforcing the offer and stopping people who have hacked around it from being able to continue to do so.
Unlimited usage != unlimited speed.
Feel free to use 2TB on your phone, not from another device.
Why stop usage altogether after 7GB when you can use as much as you want, albeit at a lower speed?
You should read the TOS. It's unlimited phone data, not tethering data. Those are the words.
Oh, so they are really like the old AOL. Back in the 1990s, they would give you 1050 free hours... during the first month of service. Only problem, 1050 hours is more than the actual number of hours in a month. So TMobile is really saying come here for the unlimited data, which they really push, but in the smaller print, only 7GB of that can be used for tethering. When they very well know most people who see that unlimited want it for tethering as a big selling point.
It's all data. Just stop playing games.
That's what's nice about T-Mobile. They don't cap their customers. You go over by a bit, and they'll let it slide. I doubt they'd do much to anyone that consistently hits 10GB. But when you're into the hundreds (and even thousands) of GBs, you don't deserve much credit from T-Mo. Also, unlike ATT/Verizon, they don't bill you a few thousand dollars and tell you to deal with it. They just cut you off, which again is only for those that excessively exceed the limits. You don't 'accidentally' go over your tether plan by hundres/thousands of gigs.
What would you name a cellular plan that has unlimited voice, unlimited texting, unlimited smartphone data usage, and 7GB of tethering data usage?
Seems to me calling it the 7GB plan isn't very accurate either...