AT&T To Throttle Data Speeds For 'Unlimited' Hogs

NEW YORK -- AT&T Inc. said Friday that it's going to start limiting speeds for the 5 percent of its customers with "unlimited" data smartphone plans who clog the airwaves the most.

The measure will take effect Oct. 1, AT&T said, and is intended to alleviate congestion on the network.

T-Mobile USA already throttles users who go over certain limits for data consumption.

AT&T stopped signing up new customers for "unlimited" plans last year. Instead, it now lets heavy users pay extra when they go over a certain data allotment.

Verizon Wireless also recently stopped signing up new customers for unlimited service.

AT&T says it will warn users when they are approaching joining the top 5 percent, and anyone subject to the speed limits will experience them until the next billing cycle starts.

The Dallas-based phone company says that what puts someone in the top 5 percent is usually streaming video or playing some online games.

AT&T won't count data use over Wi-Fi, just usage over the cellular network.

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Comments

[dariohughesmd]

09:21 PM on 08/28/2011

It's the cellular companies who promoted TV on your cellphone and the cell companies who offer the iphone and android phones. It is the cell companies that advertised 'unlimited' data. Now they hooked the country into having smartphones that they will not be able to use. How is it that you 'sheep' out there don't tell them enough is enough? Instead AT&T buys T-Mobile and now will own 40% of the pre-paid market along with the lions share of the cellphone market. We have to stop this or innovation will cease. AT&T loves to throttle competition and innovation. If you don't believe it go back and read the history. AT&T loves to say they are stretching their system with data yet they continue to operate three cell systems instead of converting to just one. They, not us, misuse 70% of the bandwidth. These aren't my numbers, they are numbers recently certified to congress. There was a time you had to buy your home phone from AT&T and so we changed the laws. Its time to change the law again. Unlimited means without limits. Time for a class action case against all carriers who suck us in with false advertising and then rape us for two years

[David305]

12:01 AM on 08/05/2011

Their untaxed wealth is beginning to "trickle down".

[Andrew Frey]

11:53 AM on 08/02/2011

When I signed up for my 'unlimited' plan it was marketed to me as just that..UNLIMITED. Unlimited means NO LIMITS. So, if there are no limits then that means no limits on speed or amount. I have read my contract thoroughly and there is no exception to speed whatsoever. If I want to change companies I get charged $150.00 to end the contract but they can change the deal whenever they want? I get the other argument that it is 'fair' for the other 95% of people. Unfortunately that makes no difference to me. I signed up for what I signed up for because it was the best available and I knew it. It isn't my fault that people didn't sign up for this plan and went the cheaper route with a cheaper (and inferior) plan. Why should a person with a lesser plan get to have the same abilities that I do? I took my time, did my research and chose what was best for my situation. Now I should be punished for it? Sprint is starting to look better and better...

[Fritzzler]

12:41 AM on 08/02/2011

The real abusers are those sites that use video commercials on every page, how about stopping that chewing up band width?

[Comeplayinmyreality]

07:44 PM on 08/01/2011

I still have my unlimited data plan with my blackberry and its suppose to be unlimited, so I dont like that they want to limit it to suit their needs. They are the greedy hogs

[utd]

02:57 PM on 08/01/2011

What part of the word "unlimited" didn't you understand AT&T?

[cbk780]

10:31 AM on 08/01/2011

Data hogs? Sounds kind of insulting to me.

I thought the whole point of the mobile revolution was to make video streaming and audio accessible to people everywhere.

That takes bandwidth.

So if you are moving into the mobile world and using your smart phone or tablet to its full potential you are a data hog.

Oink.

Charlie

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

02:00 PM on 08/01/2011

Agilecriticalthinking? I had to laugh.

AT&T has a choice: Throttle the 5% to let the other 95% have half-decent speeds/connection, or throttle 95% of the population because the 5% are hogging all of the bandwith.

Imagine if, on your I-95 ride to work, I was driving a tank that took up the whole road, and only drove 15MPH.

You'd be upset. And that's what's happening. These 5% of people SHOULD be given 5% of the bandwidth. Now, AT&T isn't going that far, but it's clearing up a lane for other people to get by.

So what YOU are suggesting is that the 95% of people who are having their network slowed down/dropped calls/unable to connect should suck it up for the 5% of the people who want to download excessively? That sounds fair.

[jt1980]

04:58 PM on 08/01/2011

There is another solution: AT&T could invest more to expand bandwidth.

This is a company that has not improved very little its landline broadband capacity for over a decade.

[Rihannon]

03:09 AM on 08/01/2011

Just another reason that IF this debacle of a "deal" passes and merges AT&T and T-Mobile ... we are going ANYWHERE but to AT&T.
Stringing two ... or three or more .. paper cups together is looking realllllll good.

[jimme]

11:13 PM on 07/31/2011

Whatever became of all the "little" companies they made from the AT&T break-up years ago ?

[Rihannon]

03:17 AM on 08/01/2011

It's called "capitalism," or "late- postmodern- post-industrial capitalism," namely, the belief that every average man/woman shouldn't be able to keep the fruits of his/her own labor, because the rich and privileged deserve more, far more than their fair share.

[jt1980]

04:59 PM on 08/01/2011

After all they "create" jobs (never mind that we haven't seen job creation in the USA for a while now.)

[blake starr]

07:11 PM on 08/01/2011

What you just described is socialism/communism. In capitalism everyone has the opportunity to be rich, in the other 2 everyone shares except the top 5%. I think you need to take an economics class. Words like "fair-share" are also socialistic words. The only "fair" system is capitalism, only that economic system allows anyone to become rich. Now corrupt capitalism is another story.

[benji85]

02:18 PM on 08/01/2011

Ma Bell rang the dinner bell and they all came back home.

[FreelanceWriter]

10:55 PM on 07/31/2011

>> Cabrobst: "It's always best to keep consumers from using your service rather than make your service better so more people use it."

>> AbeMartin: "What data speed? If you want to see what a sham the U.S. telecommun­ications industry has been running, visit Europe and drop into a cyber-cafe in Paris or London or Berlin."

>> BigShotProf: "And of course by "hogs" they mean the people who actually use their phones the way that AT&T advertises they can."

Maybe it's just me, but in hindsight...well, all along I've been saying this...with the economy doing so bad and with Obama SO determined to practice Keynesian economics to get things going (ie. the government will pump money into things to create jobs)...

...Why the heck didn't they spend the $1 TRILLION stimulus (that they essentially flushed away) on something TRULY big and TRULY worthwhile -- like upgrading the nation's phone lines and Net services? Think about it...you would have out of work blue collar workers would now get jobs building things...and then unemployed white collar workers would get jobs at new data centers and whatnot...and ultimately the consumer benefits because our communications grid would no longer be a JOKE.

[Parade Keegan]

09:12 PM on 07/31/2011

When did allowing corporations to set limits and penalties to thwart contractual unlimited data plans become acceptable business practice?

[Hothgor]

08:27 PM on 07/31/2011

Just wait until they start throttling normal broadband services too. Its amazing how people in Europe, Japan and Korea enjoy 100x the speed for 1/2 the cost with ZERO throttling, yet the majority of the country only has access to 5-10mbps connections with ~150GB of data allowances and of course fees for those who use more.

The excuse? We are 'too spread out'. This is a bogus statement used by these companies to rip us off. The vast majority of the population live sin urban areas of similar population density to what you find in other countries. I can understand how people who live in smaller communities have a slower speed, but there is no reason that we don't have 100mbps+ connections in every major city over 100k.

And don't even get me started on the 10s of thousands of miles of 'dark fiber' that has already been laid around the country that goes unused. Do you think Google is just going to 'build' its high speed network out of scratch? Of course not! They are going to use the resources that are already in place. Our taxpayer money funded their installation, its time for the companies that we gave handouts too to actually use them.

[kcwookie]

10:17 PM on 07/31/2011

The real reason is we believe in American Exceptionalism and think the world rises and sets with our technology. We don't wish to believe that we are behind the times and that others have better than us. We believe that our corporations have our best interest at heart. In other words...we are too stupid to be believed.

[dariohughesmd]

09:28 PM on 08/28/2011

People in America buy the 'lie' that access to the internet is somehow expensive to provide to the consumer. I get so frustrated by the dumbing down of this nation and the willingness to believe that a 100 bucks a month isn't too much to use your phone to access the net. With technology today it is possible to put every town up on WiFi for very little money. It's cheap. If we did this then the WiFi mode on the cellphone would give us all the net we want. I'm afraid we are a nation of sheep.

[benney44]

08:12 PM on 07/31/2011

AT&T "rethink possible". I'm rethinking keeping you as my service provider. Fortune 500 corporation constantly whining about their customers "using" the service they sell. Meanwhile they bankroll billions and lay off thousands of employees every quarter instead of fixing their antiquated broken down network. I don't get it.

[yes we can61]

02:27 PM on 07/31/2011

GOTTA have room for all that GOVT TRACKING DATA STREAMS LOL.

[coalman987]

02:06 PM on 07/31/2011

Data throttling = White People Problem.

Joking aside, this sucks, if Verizon starts pulling this on the people that grandfathered into unlimited data I'll be quite annoyed.