Does AT&T slow down data on unlimited plans?
Over the recent past, AT&T Internet has been in the limelight over its allegations that it caps data speeds for its customers with unlimited data plans intentionally. Well, there you have it – the real question is – does AT&T indeed throttle unlimited data clients? Let’s take a closer look at the details.
It’s important to know how Unlimited Data and Throttling have come into existence and the reasons behind it.
If we trace the evolution of the smartphone back to the late 2000s, people enjoyed the luxury of the unlimited data plan. However, as people started using their phones for streaming videos and other heavy data uses, the carriers started slowly discontinuing their unlimited data offers claiming network congestion.
, In Feb 2010, AT&T became the first of the major carriers to cut its unlimited data plan for new customers. However, they did not alter the terms of business for those people who already had the unlimited data plan and they can continue using it provided they pay their bills as and when required. This was done by giving ‘grandfather status’ to unlimited data subscribers, which would later cause controversy.
The Increase in Data Throttling
However, as more and more unlimited data consumers consumed more data, AT&T strived to find ways of rationing its usage without violating the unlimited data provision. Their solution was “data throttling” meaning the speeds of any customer that used beyond this limit of data in one calendar month, usually around 22GB, was heavily reduced for the rest of the month.
This was an excuse that was provided by AT&T when the policy was implemented, stating that the policy was aimed at preserving the network capacity for all consumers. However, many considered it as a simple attempt by AT&T to generate more revenues from people on unlimited data plans by deliberately slowing down their connections at a later time.
The FCC Gets Involved
In 2014, the FCC received one complaint from a consumer who felt that AT&T was throttling their data service. The complaint was that the slow data policy was not sufficiently disclosed to the unlimited data customers by AT&T.
The FCC accepted the complaint and opened an inquiry into the behavior of AT&T and how it was throttling its customers. In 2015, the FCC fined AT&T $100 million over the company deceiving customers by throttling their data without notice. The FCC found this to be against the net neutrality principles.
Again, while entering the settlement talks, AT&T had to ensure that it notifies users of any speed changes and allows a user to opt out of throttling altogether. Again, AT&T complied by altering their disclosure with a new policy change and indefinitely usable data customers can opt out by paying $30 more per month. Even before the advent of the concept of an opt-out fee, customers who did not pay this fee saw their Internet speeds reduced when they used much data.
The Controversy Continues
Subsequently, AT&T tweaked its unlimited data plans severally in the following years – removing such grandfathered plans at one time; increasing its prices; and changing the throttling speed. With each new update, customers have lamely blamed AT&T for using data throttling to compel its users into paying more money for its new throttled ‘unlimited’ packages instead of the old unlimited plans.
Other consumer organizations continue to claim that while AT&T boasts of offering “unlimited,” their message, what they do is throttle the speeds of their customers to dissuade them from maintaining their current unlimited plans. On the other side, AT&T defends throttling as necessary to prevent congestion on their network, thus for this reason their actions are justified.
Recent Class Action Lawsuits
The data throttling controversy has spilled into the courts as AT&T subscribers fight back against the practice: The data throttling controversy has spilled into the courts as AT&T subscribers fight back against the practice:
• Last year, AT&T paid $5 million in a class action suit due to customer allegations of false advertising involving what ‘unlimited data’ means.
• New in 2022, another $14 million class action claimed AT&T of falsely claiming 4G LTE network coverage while providing slow actual service to rural areas.
But Where Are We Today?:
Although FCC actions ensured that AT&T provided more transparent throttling over five years ago, today’s unlimited data plans allow reduced speeds once a customer reaches a certain data limit per month. Prolonged data throttling concerns in 2022 are seen in large class-action lawsuits that show customer discontent.
The question as to whether these plans could rightfully be referred to as ‘unlimited’ if AT&T maintains the option to throttle your connection after a certain amount of use has been answered only partially. To the customers who have paid for the unlimited data allowance, only to find that their connection speed is reduced to a virtual crawl halfway through the month, the principle of truth in advertising is still a very relevant issue even today, a full decade after the matter first surfaced.
The technicalities involved in the management of a network are complex enough to allow for a lot of arguments that some of the actions that are considered unfair data throttling may be justified in some circumstances. However, at the very least, consumers would want to get total clarity from AT&T and other carriers regarding what exactly they mean by ‘unlimited’.
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