AT&T has finally been made accountable for lying to its customers about the “Unlimited” data plans that are not unlimited. AT&T was slowing customers Internet data down to 95% of the regular speed after reaching a dismal 2GB of data usage.
2GB of data can easily be reached in a few hours of watching Netflix on your phone, which many people do these days. However the F.T.C (Federal Trade Commission) has been forced to make an example out of AT&T for lying to customers.
AT&T says that emails and text’s alerting customers of changes to the unlimited data plan were sent. Email and texts containing something along the lines of unlimited data was only full speed until 2GB for 3G and 5GB for 4G LTE technology, and after this time speeds would be slowed.
However the majority of customers never received this notification. When the data connection was slowed down it’s considered useless for any modern internet applications.
However it seems that AT&T seems to think that it has done nothing wrong, claiming that it was transparent with customers.
AT&T isn’t the only one doing this. MVNO’s (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) are using the same deceptive advertising and branding methods as AT&T, and it is high time they had their date with the F.T.C.
One prime example is Tracfone’s : Net10 and Straight Talk brands they have “unlimited data prepaid plans” running on AT&T, however instead of slowing customers speeds down they were disconneting them off the phone network completely after 2GB on 3G.
After this started happening a few years ago Tracfone let customers know a few months later that there was a 2GB cap on high speed data, and slowed their connections down after reaching the cap.
There are very few telecommunication companies that make honest claims anymore, so as a consumer you must be very careful to make sure you are not ripped off by fine print, or in this case no fine print at all. Be sure to let F.T.C know when companies like AT&T and Tracfone are not standing by their advertised product.
Source: NY Times