AT&T Mobility continued its attempts to explain its limiting of network speeds for customers on unlimited data plans noting that it will now limit speeds to those customers once they exceed 3 gigabytes of data transmission in a single billing cycle. This supersedes is previous policy that called for throttling of the top 5% of data users, which in some reported cases seemed to kick in at around 2 GB of data transmission.
AT&T Mobility’s new policy aligns with the carrier’s current capped data package that provides customers with 3 GB of data transmission per billing cycle for $30 that is the same amount legacy unlimited customers are paying. The carrier also offers a $50 per month plan that includes 5 GB of data transmission, with capped plans charging $10 extra per gigabyte of overage.
AT&T Mobility claims that customers using more than 3 GB of data per billing cycle are that top 5% of consumers of data traffic on its network and thus need to have their data speeds cut in order for the carrier to sufficiently handle its network traffic. The carrier has reported that approximately 17 million of the 69.3 million postpaid smartphones on its network were tied to the unlimited data plan.
AT&T Mobility parent company, AT&T, noted last year that its eventually failed attempt to acquire T-Mobile USA was necessary to gain access to additional spectrum assets in order to serve its increasingly data-hungry customer base.
This throttling of unlimited data users has garnered a significant and public backlash from consumers, as well as a recent court judgement against the carrier to the tune of $850.
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