AT&T announced this morning that they are backing down on unlimited data throttling, and will now only throttle customers who use more than 3GB of data per month, or 5GB per month for users with 4G LTE smartphones and data plans.
Do you have an unlimited data plan? If so, we have information to help you manage your account if you use more than 3GB, which means you are in the top 5% of data users in our network. If you have a 4G LTE Smartphone with monthly data usage over 5GB, you’ll also be interested in this information. You can check your usage for this month by dialing *data# on your mobile phone.
In addition, the carrier appears to have improved throttled data speeds, resulting in a much more usable experience for users who do fall subject to AT&T’s data throttling practices. Previous reports have shown AT&T throttling data to nearly unusable speeds after just 1.5GB to 2GB of monthly data usage.
The move is in response to a huge amount of backlash over their throttling practices, which have resulted in a heap of negative media attention, and even a lawsuit which awarded an $850 judgement against the carrier.
AT&T has also stated to MacRumors that “even with reduced data speeds, these customers will still be able to email and surf the web, and continue to use an unlimited amount of data each month.” It’s good that they’ve made these changes, but its extremely sad that it took a lawsuit and a heavy dose of media bulldozing to get them to do the right thing – which they should have been doing in the first place.
