AT&T throttles unlimited data users' data speeds to 2G
Back in July, AT&T starting warning its unlimited data users that, starting in October, their data speeds would be throttled once they went over an unknown data limit. October came and went and we really didn't hear much of anything about any users reaching that limit, so I'm sure most of us just pushed it to the back of our minds and forgot about it.
Fast forward to today, December 8th, and it seems that AT&T didn't forget about its promise to unlimited data users. The photo to the right isn't from my own phone, but it looks like the people who were grandfathered in to unlimited data and use ungodly amounts of it are starting to see this message pop up once they go past the data limit.
The throttle is pretty severe, too: AT&T basically cuts off access to its 3G network, leaving those unlimited users on the carrier's terrible EDGE network. Fortunately, the cut isn't permanent; AT&T says right in the message that normal data speeds will return at the end of the billing cycle.
In my mind, unlimited data should actually mean unlimited. Unlimited is typically used in a sentence to refer to something without limits, and a speed throttling certainly qualifies as a limit.
Are you using unlimited data on AT&T? How about any other carrier? If you said yes to the latter, would you freak out if your carrier sent you a message like this?
[Cult of Mac]
