T-Mobile to Restrict Unlimited Customers Using Up to 2,000 GB of Data Per Month

[jdsingle]

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.

Oh no, terms of service are several pages long? Please get over yourself. If you don't want to read the terms of the contract

 

[jdsingle]

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

Lol this guy is a joker. First, I think you need to learn the difference between marketing puffery and definitions used in legal contracts. This is why you have to sign a contract/agree to the contract before conducting business. If only I was able to tell people once I read one word in a contract that is the only word I am going to focus on and everything else is null and void, I'd be loaded.

 

[Crzyrio]

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.

So when you go to an all you can eat buffet do you just pay for yourself and let everyone eat from your plate?

That is essentially what people are doing.

Would you prefer they say Unlimited Data and not allow tethering at all?

 

[avanpelt]

I can see both sides of the coin here. 2 TB of usage in a month is pretty incredible. Someone was probably running torrents using the hotspot.

However, T-Mo shouldn't be offering an unlimited plan with strings attached and calling it an unlimited plan. Data should be treated the same regardless of the device consuming the data. My phone consumes just as much data as my computer when pointed to the same place. Sure, it can be argued that computers have the capability of consuming more data than phones due to the fact that they can do more than phones -- and I'm sure that's Legere's argument and why they cap the unlimited plans at 7 GB of LTE data for hotspot use.

If you're going to offer an unlimited plan, make it unlimited. When you start putting all kinds of qualifiers on it, it's not an unlimited plan and should not be advertised as such. Instead of having an "unlimited" plan, offer a 250 GB or 500 GB plan where the data can be used for any device and tell the customer explicitly how much data will be high speed and how much, if any, will be throttled.

 

[Plutonius]

Way to go T-mo. John continues to speak the facts, doesn't hide behind corp. speak, and says it direct.

So T-Mobile no longer has unlimited ?

 

[garylapointe]

Wow! That's 66GB a day!

That's like 22 hours of HD Netflix a day.

Gary

 

[shareef777]

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.

This is more relevant than anything posted on these comments. The fact of the matter is that T-Mobile didn't change anything other then enforce the rule that YOU signed up for. They let you get away with so much, but when you take it that high, they're going to step in. The entitlement some people think they are owed is 'too damn high'.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Lol this guy is a joker. First, I think you need to learn the difference between marketing puffery and definitions used in legal contracts. This is why you have to sign a contract/agree to the contract before conducting business. If only I was able to tell people once I read one word in a contract that is the only word I am going to focus on and everything else is null and void, I'd be loaded.

In this case it's nothing more than a title or type of plan nothing more. it doesn't mean the plan is unlimited. T-Mobile is free to specify what Unlimited means for the purposes of T-Mobile.

 

[jlc1978]

The way Legere points this out makes it seem like he's still the good guy, which he is very good at. What this means though is for anyone who tethers against the TOS, even just once or twice, will now be throttled. This is one of the major reasons why people root and jailbreak their phones. Not everyone downloads terabytes of data, some just use it for those rare occasions, which now will be basically impossible. Something that Verizon still hasn't done.

If you violate the TOS it is not unreasonable for TM to take action; especially if it is obvious you are using data far beyond any reasonable use. There's nothing wrong with rooting or jailbreaking a phone, just don't expect TM to ignore the impact on their network.

 

[4jasontv]

Sigh. What now John? Either someone hacked your network, and you are fighting it, or you have double backed on being "the uncarrier". A limit, no matter how large, is still a limit. Many of us came to you because of your very clear understanding of what unlimited means.

Don't fight the baddies by giving the law obiding citizens a curfew. Heck, I'd see these guys as a marketing opportunity.

"Last month Hackers used the equivalent of 22 hours of HBO every day. We get it. Sometimes we have to rewatch Game of Thrones too. Unlimited Data. Only on the Uncarrier."

 

[Huracan]

THEN DON'T ****ING CALL IT UNLIMITED AND THEN THEY WON'T USE UNLIMITED AMOUNTS OF DATA! ****ERS!!

Please read the article carefully. This is not against people who use their unlimited data on their smartphone for applications in the smartphone. This is against people who violate the 7GB limit on tethering an external device (laptop, etc.). My best guess is they don't pay regular broadband at home (i.e. cable, DSL) and run the entire house off the LTE connection. Probably streaming video to devices like Apple TV or Roku. I take it from your swearing that you feel really strongly about this issue, however I think T-Mobile is right on this occasion and this is not any limiting of legitimate unlimited data.

 

[MikhailT]

Sigh. What now John? Either someone hacked your network, and you are fighting it, or you have double backed on being "the uncarrier". A limit, no matter how large, is still a limit. Many of us came to you because of your very clear understanding of what unlimited means.

Don't fight the baddies by giving the law obiding citizens a curfew. Heck, I'd see these guys as a marketing opportunity.

"Last month Hackers used the equivalent of 22 hours of HBO every day. We get it. Sometimes we have to rewatch Game of Thrones too. Unlimited Data. Only on the Uncarrier."

1. It is still unlimited on the phones, nothing has changed.
2. It has ALWAYS been 7GB limit for tethering purposes from the start. Unlimited on phones, 7GB on the computers and other devices. Nothing has changed.
3. Some people are violating the 7GB limit by installing apps to fool the network into seeing tethering data as the smartphone data, thus violates the ToS. This has changed to mandate automatic warning and if people continues to do this, they'll get kicked off and downgraded to the lowest plan with limits set on them. That's the right way to handle this.

John is telling everyone that Tmobile will no longer be Mr. Nice Guy for the people abusing the network. For non-abusers, nothing has changed.

 

[jdillings]

That's a lot of porn

 

[jlc1978]

What exactly is the reason for limits anyway? I'm genuinely curious if someone could explain. In my mind, it doesn't seem like "data" is a limited commodity like water or gas or something, is it? Always wondered why there's a monthly cap on internet usage (not just mobile data).

It's not so much any one user but the number of users and the data they use impacts the overall system performance. To use your water example, if everyone flushes their toilet at the same time you would see a pressure drop even if their is enough water to meet the demand they just can't move it through the system fast enough to prevent an impact. The tower not only has a bottleneck at the antenna but the backhaul as well. If enough people constantly steam data it will degrade the throughput for everyone, which is what the companies want to avoid. Right now, the cost to upgrade to handle the spike sin use is probably not worth the performance improvement when it is easier to limit data capacity or throttle it.

I've just always thought it was internet companies who often work in line with cable TV companies just wanting to keep you from being able to use streaming as a viable alternative to massively overcharging you and still getting money from advertisements. But I guess that doesn't make sense in the case of mobile carriers.

That's the next big battle and the local caps are the first shots. Cable companies, which often are also your ISP, don't want to become a dumb pipe for cord cutters as that will significantly impact their bottom line. That's why the fight municipal fiber etc. Not because they will lose customers for internet access but as more and more content goes online vs cable they will lose cable subscribers with no way to make up the revenue. If they can continue to be the ISP then they can jack up internet access charges to make up for the lost revenue. Many of the content providers are afraid of cord cutting as well, since many cable channels cannot survive as stand alone offerings but because of the way they currently are paid, based on total subscribers not actual viewership, they make enough money to keep going even if only 2 people watch them.

 

[4jasontv]

1. It is still unlimited on the phones, nothing has changed.
2. It has ALWAYS been 7GB limit for tethering purposes from the start. Unlimited on phones, 7GB on the computers and other devices. Nothing has changed.
3. Some people are violating the 7GB limit by installing apps to fool the network into seeing tethering data as the smartphone data, thus violates the ToS. This has changed to mandate automatic warning and if people continues to do this, they'll get kicked off and downgraded to the lowest plan with limits set on them. That's the right way to handle this.

John is telling everyone that Tmobile will no longer be Mr. Nice Guy for the people abusing the network. For non-abusers, nothing has changed.

Data is data. He may be doing those things against "abusers", but he is telling people T-Mobile is no different than the other carriers.

Always be weary of the capacities of someone who can rally the support of those they divide.

 

[Huracan]

Sigh. What now John? Either someone hacked your network, and you are fighting it, or you have double backed on being "the uncarrier". A limit, no matter how large, is still a limit. Many of us came to you because of your very clear understanding of what unlimited means.

Don't fight the baddies by giving the law obiding citizens a curfew. Heck, I'd see these guys as a marketing opportunity.

"Last month Hackers used the equivalent of 22 hours of HBO every day. We get it. Sometimes we have to rewatch Game of Thrones too. Unlimited Data. Only on the Uncarrier."

The limit already existed and was enforced. This is a limit on tethering external devices, please read things carefully. What T-Mobile is saying is that some people are going out of their way to make tethering look like legitimate phone data use, by rooting their phones and doing some manipulations. Do you think this is legitimate use of data and according to service agreements? I don't think so.
I am just a T-Mobile customer. I was with AT&T for many years, without tethering functionality. I guess it was for so long that I barely think about using tethering. When I travel I usually find Wi-Fi and don't even need to tether. I don't have an unlimited plan because I don't need it at this point (good Wi-Fi in general throughout my typical day), but if I had one I wouldn't worry that I would be capped for legitimate use of data.
All in all I think we are moving towards a world were we might be able to cut the cord to DSL and Cable providers. We'll see. I would pay a bit more to T-Mobile or other provider for broadband to the home for unlimited devices and a large amount of data.

 

[Nevaborn]

When I joined Three in the UK the first thing I asked was how unlimited was the data plan and was toled there is a theoritcal cap of 2000GB per month. I remember laughing as that is never going to be an issue.

 

[JimmyHook]

This is why MacRumors forum users have terrible reputations for being whiny little girls. Yes, you do get unlimited data on your device that you put on your account with T-Mobile. You are capped on how much A DIFFERENT DEVICE can piggyback off of that connection. It's super generous. Some people are being dumb and ruining it for others. If people abuse it, we will all lose it. I read "well nobody reads the TOS". That's your fault. Also, the tethering cap is in big letters on their site.

 

[Bob Zimmerman]

What exactly is the reason for limits anyway? I'm genuinely curious if someone could explain. In my mind, it doesn't seem like "data" is a limited commodity like water or gas or something, is it? Always wondered why there's a monthly cap on internet usage (not just mobile data).

Actually, data is limited in much the same way as processor power: by time. In computing, there is a concept of a "time slot". When you are trying to do three things on your processor but you only have two cores, the operating system gives time slots on the processor to the different processes. By default, it tries to balance the time slot allocations so that each process gets time at the same rate. Sometimes, certain processes get classified as a higher or lower priority, which adjusts how often they get time slots. There is an entire branch of mathematics dealing with this called queueing theory.

Modern data radios such as the ones that run cell towers work in much the same way. By default, each station (handset, cell modem, tablet, whatever) associated with a single tower gets the same priority. If one station transfers a lot of data all at once, the tower can usually give almost all of the time slots to that user to finish the transfer quickly. When two stations both want to transfer a lot of data, the tower has to slow each of them down and determine who gets to talk when. When one transfer finishes, all of the time slots can go to the other one.

Certain stations can get higher priority and certain tasks can get higher priority. As a specific example, a call to 911 in the United States is given almost top priority by the tower's time sharing system. If a tower is using all of its capacity and a station connected to it calls 911, it will drop another call or data transfer to make room for the 911 call. Of course, if some things get higher priority, others can also get lower priority. For example, a station that has used a certain amount of data within a month can be classified as lower-priority. It will still get available time slots, but when there are more requests than there are time slots to service them, it gets a lower ratio than other stations. This is demand-based throttling.

You can also set up rules that say that a given station can never be given more than a certain percentage of time slots on a tower, even if the tower is otherwise idle. This is a different type of throttling and this is the kind people tend to get upset about. From a technological standpoint, there is almost never justification for this type.

 

[ssgbryan]

Well it can't be called unlimited if one of the major features is NOT unlimited. They could call it the ALMOST UNLIMITED plan though.

People like you are why we can't have nice things.

 

[BellsWhistles]

Most of it is exaggerated by wireless providers to justify such a high cost per GB for data, especially Verizon and AT&T. Data itself doesn't have much of a cost to it, it's the infrastructure to carry that data. The more data being consumed on a tower, means more improvements need to be made to accommodate that as a tower only has so much spectrum that can be used concurrently. If more and more people are downloading more and more data, companies need to purchase additional spectrum, upgrade their backhaul, etc.

The biggest difference between wired and wireless is that wireless is a shared medium. Carriers highly prefer to limit customers data use so they can have more customers on a tower before having to upgrade or add more towers.

It's still way overblown.

You are correct, except that it is not simply done as adding more towers. The bandwidth is a subset of the frequency of the carrier signal. It was not really designed for heavy usage by many people. So, the one person who is streaming their Home media through their PHONE is going to affect the next door neighbours who are trying to make phone calls.

Additional note: Cel towers need approval by a number of agencies from Civil services, buidling owners and some area homeowners. It is a *pita* orchestration of "ayes". They don't spring up at the will of a single company.

Really, are people that simple they don't want to get internet service to their home. If that is the case, than a service provider needs to protect the service for the REST OF THE CUSTOMERS. The correction was just a matter of time and abuse. NOTHING IS UNLIMITED. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves.

Also, since when did a conversation involving tethering invite comparisons to a cable data provider? Two very different solutions.

 

[tennisproha]

The way Legere points this out makes it seem like he's still the good guy, which he is very good at. What this means though is for anyone who tethers against the TOS, even just once or twice, will now be throttled. This is one of the major reasons why people root and jailbreak their phones. Not everyone downloads terabytes of data, some just use it for those rare occasions, which now will be basically impossible. Something that Verizon still hasn't done.

lets get real here. it's not meant to replace your home ISP. the hotspot is for when you're out somewhere away from home and wanna use your LTE to connect your laptop. if you're doing this on a daily basis, then you clearly need a dedicated wireless LTE card and plan for your laptop. you shouldn't be going over 7GB on those rare occasions. and even if you occasionally do it and run over, you can purchase more that month.

this is way more generous and beyond anything verizon offers. the fact that verizon hasn't done it is a moot point.

 

[MaciMac100]

What country is that, omenatarhuri?

Finland.

Operators here are making jokes about your crazy prices and data limits;

It's really crazy to read about US operators as a foreigner.

 

[AdonisSMU]

lets get real here. it's not meant to replace your home ISP. the hotspot is for when you're out somewhere away from home and wanna use your LTE to connect your laptop. if you're doing this on a daily basis, then you clearly need a dedicated wireless LTE card and plan for your laptop. you shouldn't be going over 7GB on those rare occasions. and even if you occasionally do it and run over, you can purchase more that month.

this is way more generous and beyond anything verizon offers. the fact that verizon hasn't done it is a moot point.

I used to use my AT&T tethering for my laptop. I purchased a high end plan though and now AT&T has something called roll-over but I hardly ever use it because I have ISP in my house or I use Coffee shop/Work internet.

 

[Hedwigg]

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.

I'm sure there will be people crying up a storm about how "OMG UNLIMITED SHOULD BE UNLIMITED OMG WTF BBQ", but... clearly, anyone signing up for this plan to use TWO TERABYTES OF DATA per month ON THEIR CELLPHONE is taking advantage, and making the experience less than desirable for other customers on T-Mobile. Personally, I think a 2TB limit is WAY more than reasonable. Nobody should be coming close to even a terabyte per month... sheesh. That's ridiculous.

And yeah, I know some of you will argue with me, but I don't care.