FTC lawsuit alleges AT&T deceived 'unlimited' data customers by throttling connection speeds

[Shawn Knight]

It’s been a busy month for AT&T’s legal team. After agreeing to pay $105 million to settle a cramming dispute with the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month, the nation’s second largest wireless provider is now on the receiving end of a lawsuit from the latter commission regarding data throttling.

The complaint, filed by the FTC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, alleges that AT&T has misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds by nearly 90 percent in some cases.

Specifically, the commission claims AT&T failed to adequately disclose the fact that unlimited data customers would have their speeds throttled if they reach a certain amount of data used in a given billing cycle. Common mobile tasks like web browsing, GPS navigation and watching streaming video become nearly impossible to perform once throttled.

Thousands of customers have reportedly called AT&T out over the matter with some referring to it as a bait and switch tactic. When some customers got fed up with throttling and canceled their contracts, AT&T charged them early termination fees which typically amount to hundreds of dollars.

The FTC says AT&T began the practice in 2011 once customers used as little as 2GB of data in a billing period. In total, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/58613-ftc-lawsuit-alleges-att-deceived-unlimited-data-customers.html

 

[amstech]

Dirtbag companies run by dirtbag employees with dirtbag agenda's, rules and thinking. And it starts with how poorly we train our kids.

"Ok kids, to succeed in life you must try to get as much as you can while doing as little as possible. Be sure to mention your depression and how bad you have it. In todays business world people are scumbag bigots who don't believe in good business with a firm handshake anymore, its all about decievement and ripping people off right in their face and making sure they can do nothing about it. Now go."

 

[EClyde]

Their logo doesn't look like the Deathstar by accident

 

[GhostRyder]

I have had this happen to me before but its usually if I exceed 6gb data usage a month which honestly is a rare thing for me but I know others who have had this issue constantly.

Really does make me angry because with todays world the smartphone can use a lot of data very easily and this can make for unpleasant circumstances for users who use their phones consistently because they are constantly moving around. It would not be a big deal except that they do it so early and below some of their new "Premium Data Plan" levels where you can but up to I believe 10gb (I maybe wrong I have not paid attention because I have unlimited). It would not bother me as much so long as you at minimum exceeded by a decent margin their max data plan on unlimited but they should never throttle up to 90% for users.

 

[Aemon]

Lord knows I loathe AT&T however the devil is in the details here. If the Unlimited Data was not Unlimited 'High Speed' Data, then AT&T may have the upper hand here over the FTC. Slow data is still data.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Throttling seems to be the norm everywhere when it comes to unlimited data packages and it also seems to be the norm that they 'forget' to inform the user about the throttling once they reach a certain limit (like 5MB)
I've always said and I always will say a good wireless carrier is one that's gone insolvent or one that hasn't yet started up. They're all tarred with the same brush.

 

[lipe123]

I just want to say I love how people think that bandwidth is made at AT&T or any other isp. They pay for it just as everyone else does. Try getting a commercial fiber hookup and enjoy seeing the pricetag on those puppies. You pay for the highest mean bandwidth being used and it starts at the thousands.

It was their own fault for offering unlimited plans because common sense dictates that nothing is unlimited. Maybe they started a trend when the only thing you could do was email and browse tiny websites but nowadays a smart phone can suck up tons of bandwidth and there is no way for them to balance the budget with such an excessive amount of unexpected data being used.

 

[Rippleman]

Technically there is no such thing as unlimited data. even with a 1,000,000 megabit connection and downloading at max 24 hours a day, you are still limited to the max the connection allows.

 

[tipstir]

They all do it to save on profit margins it's a company to make money right. So it's the America way to deal business. They told me at AT&T if I give them my credit card info they will reduce my cell phone by $5 a month. They're not the only ones doing this scheme either. I really don't want them to have anything to do with my account that way. I'll pay it when it's due not before it. $5 not considering the tax I'll be charged.

All these cell phone companies cry about unlimited data would cost them so much, but no matter what they'll still make money from you. So why market unlimited data if your going to play pin 1GB, 2GB an higher on the backs of the customer wallet if they go beyond 2GB.

Such a racket today they'll never give us a break!

 

[BadThad]

I'm going to disagree with big government here. Unlimited implies "unlimited usage", I don't believe it says anywhere "unlimited speed". Bandwidth costs money - to think freeloaders sucking gigs of data down constantly are getting free, unlimited bandwidth is naive. IMO, this is just another ploy by our sucka$$ government for bilking companies (and thus consumers, yea, we end-up paying the fines) out of money. You knuckleheads that demonize ATT, suck the governments teet and buy into the governments BS are the problem.

 

[tonylukac]

Maybe it's because att/zte won't honor the guarentee on my android phone. It is an att phone manufactured by zte.

 

[7vkweygfr]

I gave up on the mobile internet charlatanry a decade ago, when the telco cartel marketed it as WAP and charged 1€/MB for it. You want unlimited connectivity, start deploying your own wirelless networks and **** THE CORPORATE INTERNET!

 

[tonylukac]

Maybe it's because att/zte won't honor the guarentee on my android phone. It is an att phone manufactured by zte.

Guess the rma came thru rrom zte/att. Thanks techspot.

 

[Guest]

This is the common practice of the Philippines' mobile company except its not high speed. average speed is 2mbps