AT&T Throttling Smartphone Data 'Hogs' Down To 2G Speeds
Gosh, sure do hope the T-Mobile merger goes through! (no, not really)
Isn't it annoying when someone sneakily texts critically important information to you, instead of calling or writing a letter like a normal person would? Like, that you're fired. Or that your significant other is angry with you and wants to talk. Or that your phone company has determined, based on a measurement system they refuse to disclose, that they're going to just start taking money directly from your pocket as though they were mugging you.
You bet it is, as smartphone owners fortunate enough to be AT&T customers are beginning to find out. When AT&T announced earlier this year that they would begin throttling smartphone users above a certain data usage level starting in October, it was widely assumed whatever standard they used would be as arbitrary as it is indefensible. Now, however, we know precisely how arbitrary AT&T's caps are. Customers don't have a set data limit, which would at least be measurable (though still indefensible since 'data' isn't mined like tungsten); instead, their data usage is averaged with the total network of customers. Simply put, if you happen to have a busy month and end up in the top 5 percent of data users on AT&T's network, congratulations! You will now experience the magic of being bumped down from HSPA+ to 2G for the rest of the billing cycle.
The image to your above right is of a text received by one such customer (via Cult of Mac).
Soapbox time
If this reminds you of the way Bank of America used to arrange customer billing history by transaction amount instead of transaction order, so as to increase the risk that their customers would overdraw their account multiple times and thus, incur abysmally high overdraft fees, it should. This system makes it almost impossible for customers to keep track of their usage in order to prevent being throttled. Were it a set amount of data, users could at least check their activity and slow down when they begin to approach their limit. Instead, they're going to be screwed should they happen to fall within the top 5 percent, whatever number that 5 percent happens to be a fraction of. Brilliant, if you think about it, because it prevents AT&T from ever having to not overcharge people while providing less service. If their customers decide, en masse, to strictly limit their data usage, it doesn't matter. The top 5 percent are affected no matter how frugal or profligate they're being.
It's precisely the kind of underhanded tactic employed by businesses when they have almost no competition and start to view their customers as easy marks instead of the reason they're able to exist. Bank of America was eventually forced by law to stop their institutionalized grift, but there appears to be no end in sight for those who use AT&T as their phone service provider. One more reason AT&T's failure to gain federal approval to purchase T-Mobile is excellent news.
Update
Thanks to a comment from Tom's Guide reader dlux, we've learned that AT&T is doing this to other smartphone customers too -- not just those on iPhone-specific plans.
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Now we wait for the Verizon/Sprint ads to attack this.
AT&T is a joke.
The article makes it sound like they are only monitoring or limiting iPhones. Shouldn't iPhone in the article be replaced by "smartphone?"
Sounds pretty typical of the tactics of large corporations. If they can find a way to screw you, they will.
Wait does one have to exceed their data plan cap first before this kicks in?
The best part about all of this. AT&T was a NOTHING carrier until the iPhone took off. AT&T would not be in the position it is in financially if not for the initial iPhone adopters. These are the same people who still have unlimited data on their service.
How does AT&T replay their loyal and dedicated customers??
KICK THEM IN THE BALLS
repay*
Wait does one have to exceed their data plan cap first before this kicks in?
From reading the article the answer is nope. Just be in the top 5%, over data limit or not and it kicks in.
When I read articles like that I'm more and more shocked when I read posts like "why is the government always on the backs of companies" The feds should just butt out and let the free market decide whats best".
I'm sure most of at&t users would like a lil government intervention now.
The article makes it sound like they are only monitoring or limiting iPhones. Shouldn't iPhone in the article be replaced by "smartphone?"
Probably, though unless you've got HSPA+ you're not going to come anywhere near the top 5%. I'm not sure how many phones AT&T offers with HSPA+, but I'd bet that the 4S represents the majority.
When I read articles like that I'm more and more shocked when I read posts like "why is the government always on the backs of companies" The feds should just butt out and let the free market decide whats best".I'm sure most of at&t users would like a lil government intervention now.
Let the free market work itself out...people will leave AT&T for other carriers when their plans are up, and then AT&T will have to do something drastic to gain consumer trust back.
If you don't think Sprint will have to do the same thing eventually, you're kidding yourself.
Probably, though unless you've got HSPA+ you're not going to come anywhere near the top 5%. I'm not sure how many phones AT&T offers with HSPA+, but I'd bet that the 4S represents the majority.
Unless AT&T only does this with iPhone's, it's shoddy journalism.
I went into this article having read the title thinking it was something specific to iPhones. Given that AT&T have various Samsung, BB & Motorola models, including the Samsung Galaxy S 2 - the title is extremely misleading.
Whether iPhones are the majority of their users or not is absolutely irrelevant - the implication of the title is that some of the blame belongs to Apple.
How is AT&T making money from this? They are not billing more as in the B of A scenario. That's a poor analogy. Seems this is being done to protect the limited network capacity. The T-Mobile merger should help alleviate this issue.
If you don't think Sprint will have to do the same thing eventually, you're kidding yourself.
So what happens when all companies begin to do it once they see at&t do and and having nothing happen to them?
What are you going to do, leave at&t who randomly slow your data speed for sprint, verizion, or t-mobile who also randomly slow your data speed? Trust me if at&t does this with no punishment, then the other companies will to.
@ netherscourge
Sorry that reply was not for you. It was for Jacekring
I don't have internet access on my phone so I don't have to worry about a cap, but good god no wonder AT&T is ranked the LOWEST in customer service.
Unless AT&T only does this with iPhone's, it's shoddy journalism.I went into this article having read the title thinking it was something specific to iPhones. Given that AT&T have various Samsung, BB & Motorola models, including the Samsung Galaxy S 2 - the title is extremely misleading.Whether iPhones are the majority of their users or not is absolutely irrelevant - the implication of the title is that some of the blame belongs to Apple.
The title does not assign any blame to Apple. Read it again. It is a fact that the vast majority of the "unlimited" data plans on Att are the ones "grandfathered" in that old iPhone data plan.
The implication of your comment is that you have a personal beef with SGS2 and that chip on your shoulder is now a crater.
As an iPhone owner on AT&T, I can tell you their 3G network is frequently only able to deliver 2G speeds anyway. Being throttled is like saying you're getting regular speed.
I think it's hilarious that people think a free market system would fix these kinds of problems. While the free market theory may be a good one, in theory, history shows that human greed always corrupts it. Do you guys TRULY believe that without government oversight, there wouldn't be pricing collusion amongst companies in every industry, and rampant monopolization, among other problems?
The banking example is a great one. Our major industries have all realized that fees are the golden path to easy profits. Any of you that think businesses are about providing superior customer service are delusional. It's all about customer abuse now, and finding out how far they can push their customers before they lose them, or before they're forced to stop pushing.
Democracy is a great ideal, but humans corrupt it. The same with capitalism, it's a fantastic ideal, but humans continuously corrupt it unless forced not to. Checks and balances. If our government needs it, so does our industrial complex.
When I read articles like that I'm more and more shocked when I read posts like "why is the government always on the backs of companies" The feds should just butt out and let the free market decide whats best".I'm sure most of at&t users would like a lil government intervention now.
That is simply because you don't understand that the market is this way because the government IS intervening. Why do you think it is always 2-3 big corporations in every market. Sure, there is "competition." You have the choice between McDonalds or Burger King, Republican or Democrat, Verizon or AT&T, CNN or Fox News. They are all run by the same group of people. The government intervenes to keep your choices limited to what they want it to be. There is NO "free market" today. There is an illusion of free market to keep you content.
Will all the haters please switch your cell provider to the Magical Cell Company That Has Magical Unlimited Bandwidth. I hear they have a $0.01 per month plan with unlimited everything at 9G speeds, with a new no-contract every 3 months. That's the company for you. Maybe then you would stop whining.
That is simply because you don't understand that the market is this way because the government IS intervening. Why do you think it is always 2-3 big...
There is counseling available for this class of paranoid conspiratorial beliefs.
Let the free market work itself out...people will leave AT&T for other carriers when their plans are up, and then AT&T will have to do something drastic to gain consumer trust back.
And that argument worked so well with data caps, right?
Initially when only AT&T had data caps, all you free market evangelists claimed people would just move to carriers with no caps and the market would shift for the better. A few years later and almost all companies have caps or throttle data. It seems the carriers figured out that if one company can screw their customers, all they'd have to do is screw them a little less and things would still seems "competitive".
Yes, the free market really worked out for the consumer, didn't it? Oh, and AT&T and Verizon recorded record profits in recent quarters.
There is counseling available for this class of paranoid conspiratorial beliefs.
I'd rather not have a counselor try to keep me as an ignorant sheep like yourself, thanks.
So THAT'S why they have me on a 2 year contract!! Yea, I'll be switching after this. Maybe going to the HTC Titan, although I'd like something that has an AMOLED screen and expandable storage, or maybe I can keep the focus.
Hey Sprint! How ya doin'?
Perhaps a lawsuit would force them to get rid of the 5% rule and give an actual cap....if they have not already disclosed this information.
I got one of those texts. Not on an iPhone, have a Samsung Captivate. Damn Netflix....
I hate ATT. I hate Apple. The above though, is a very broad assumption based on assumptions. I use Verizon and pay for 2GB, but I usually skirt by at about .5% usage, but when you gotta have it, you gotta have it.
When I read articles like that I'm more and more shocked when I read posts like "why is the government always on the backs of companies" The feds should just butt out and let the free market decide whats best".I'm sure most of at&t users would like a lil government intervention now.
free market only works for so long, until there is a monopoly.
in tech, a monopoly is FAR easier to gain than anywhere else.
you make a car, someone else does, they all use the same roads
you make an os, someone else makes an os, but software only works on it if its programmed for it.
when one tilts 60/40 the 60 has already won, and takes a colossal failure to lose. its why you will never see linux or mac ever overtake the pc. a few years ago, it could have been possible, at least when gameing was still lead on the pc. if devs went to opengl, linux route would have been possible. get a linux version that was basically windows but more stable, and can play games (better than dx, which was usually the case) and you got a ton of people who would have switched. but no, by the time linux versions easy enough for general home use came around, gaming went to consoles.
at&t is kind of like windows that way, there is basicly no way for them to fall without a failure so epic that no one in the world could imagine it possible...
probably went a bit off topic somewhere in there.
$25 a month for 2GB on my wife's iPad 2 + hulu plus = 2GB used in 2 days lol
Whats funny is we have iphones with grandfathered unlimited data lol we get more data on our phones than our iPad lol. Whats the point of even having 3g on a tablet if you can only use 2gigs a month, I'm severly pissed, and now this. My iphone data usage monthly is around 3-5GBs on average. If I wasn't grandfathered in, I would be going over every month on there 3GB plan lol.
The other carriers are no saints either, but ATT is starting to get out of hand.
Well, then the question is 2 AT&T or Not2 AT&T?
Comcast does this with high speed internet, and I hate them because of it. Unfortunately, there is no other high speed provider in my area.