AT&T Scales Back Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans

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AT&T Scales Back Throttling of Grandfathered Unlimited Data Plans


AT&T has quietly updated one of its policies to reflect that it will now only throttle customers that are connected to a cell tower experiencing network congestion, reports Ars Technica. The carrier previously throttled all grandfathered customers with unlimited data plans that exceeded 5GB of 4G LTE data usage in a single monthly billing period, regardless of network congestion.

The updated policy reads as follows:
"As a result of AT&T's network management process, customers on a 3G or 4G smartphone or on a 4G LTE smartphone with an unlimited data plan who have exceeded 3 gigabytes (3G/4G) or 5 gigabytes (4G LTE) of data in a billing period may experience reduced speeds when using data services at times and in areas that are experiencing network congestion. All such customers can still use unlimited data without incurring overage charges, and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle."
Last October, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a federal court complaint against AT&T, accusing the carrier of misleading its smartphone customers by charging them for unlimited data while reducing their data speeds by up to 90 percent. The FTC claimed that AT&T did not adequately inform its customers that they would be throttled for using more than a certain amount of data during a billing cycle. AT&T could still face penalties from the FTC if it loses the case, despite changing its policy.

AT&T customers with unlimited data plans have experienced speeds as low as half a megabit per second when being throttled, according to the report, resulting in barely usable service. By throttling unlimited data plans, AT&T is naturally encouraging customers to switch to one of the tiered data plans that it introduced in the years after discontinuing unlimited plans. Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have similar throttling practices where there is network congestion.


:pimp: still got my unlimited
I ain't NEVER letting it go
Do folks who let theirs go regret it????
 
have 30gb a month for 5 phones fam plan on att..towards the end of the month always start running out then get charged like 15 bucks for each extra gb i go over 
sick.gif


they even got rid of the actual internet unlimited data for homes i believe. i get charged extra on my bill because i go over 200gb a month at home plus i have the fastest att internet available in my area and i only get 6mbps... 
indifferent.gif
 ...acting like they going to run out of internet or something. 
 
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AT&T is the best cellular service carrier easily. They tax but you'll always have service. ALWAYS and the Internet speed has always been on point.
 
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been with tmobile for a while. Unlimited :pimp:
:smh: service driving up north for meetings and construction administration :x
No connection in a sun down town is :x :x :x
 
I'm glad they aren't throttling, but this policy has loopholes. How would a customer know if the tower is congested? In major cities with a large population, I would think cell towers would always be congested unless at off times 11pm-5am.

Ultimately AT&T wants to get all the grandfathered unlimited plans on a mobile sharing plan or pay for a set data plan, that is why they started to throttle in the first place.

I will wait to see what happens. Hit 5 GB within 10 days of my billing period and throttle kills me.
 
have 30gb a month for 5 phones fam plan on att..towards the end of the month always start running out then get charged like 15 bucks for each extra gb i go over :x

they even got rid of the actual internet unlimited data for homes i believe. i get charged extra on my bill because i go over 200gb a month at home plus i have the fastest att internet available in my area and i only get 6mbps... :stoneface:  ...acting like they going to run out of internet or something. 

That overlogging is serious business

[img url]http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/shared/locations/publicbuildings-internet-refugee-camp.png[/img]
 
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:smh: at the amount of people I convinced to switch over to MobileShare when I was selling phones
 
I had "unlimited" AT&T and then switched to T-Mobile. Now I have unlimited with no throttling.

But now you have t mobile :rofl:

What's wrong with T-Mobile doe?

I have them and their service is great, imo.

Plus everyone in the country should be taking T-Mobile right now for putting pressure on ATT and Verizon. They are the driving force behind those two companies improving their policies
 
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Been with AT&t since 03 when it was Cingular.I've never had an issue with them. 10GB data plan with the data rollover and I'm the only one on my plan.
 
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I had tmobile for years and it sucked. So many dropped calls.I switched to att in 2012.
I can't remember the last time one of my calls dropped or I didn't have service with att. Yeah I hate the extra charges but have no problems with the service.
 
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