AT&T is redefining the term “unlimited data” for its legacy customers. Under the new policy introduced Thursday, some unlimited data subscribers will see their speeds throttled back whenever they exceed a fixed monthly cap.
According to the wireless carrier, the reason why the new reduced speeds only apply to certain unlimited smartphone customers is because their data usage is significantly higher than those on tiered plans. “For example, in January, the top 5 percent of our unlimited data plan customers used an average of over 50 percent more data than the top 5 percent of customers on tiered plans,” AT&T said in a statement.
Customers with 3G smartphones operating under an “unlimited” plan will receive a text message when their data usage approaches 3 GB in a single billing cycle. Thereafter, the subscriber’s data speeds will be reduced for the remainder of that billing cycle.
“If you have a 4G LTE smartphone and still have an unlimited data plan, the same process applies at 5 GB of data usage, instead of 3 GB,” AT&T said.
The company already had been throttling back speeds on its “unlimited” customers who exceeded the top 5 percent of data usage in their respective markets. Some had complained that the cap was unclear because it varied from market to market and month to month, and the new fixed caps appear to be an attempt to clarify expectations.
So Many Restrictions
Data usage notifications like the ones AT&T describe are useful, said Lisa Pierce, the managing vice president for unified communications, network systems and services at Gartner. “But frankly,” she said in an e-mail Thursday, “there are so many restrictions in place from most providers that we’ll soon have to ask what ‘limited’ means!”
AT&T attributed the change to an impending wireless spectrum crunch.
Under its merger contract with T-Mobile, AT&T had…
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