AT&T explains unlimited data throttling
If you were lucky enough to get grandfathered into AT&T's unlimited data plans, you're probably trying to take advantage of it by using your phone's connection a lot during the day. But as you probably have found out the hard way, AT&T doesn't like that and throttles your connection speed when you get to a certain point.
It's certainly been a confusing mess for all of AT&T's unlimited data customers. Luckily, AT&T itself thought so, too, and has issued a statement regarding the whole situation. Here are the two main points of the carrier's statement:
- Customers with a 3G or 4G smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – will see speeds reduced if they use 3GB (gigabytes) of data or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle. For context, less than 5 percent of smartphone customers use more than 3GB per month.
- For customers with a 4G LTE smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – data speeds will be reduced if usage is 5GB (gigabytes) or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle.
If you're thinking that this is tl;dr, let me sum it up for you: if you have a 3G/4G non-LTE smartphone, your data will be throttled when you go over 3GB per month. If your phone is LTE-capable, you will get 5GB of non-throttled data per month. It's certainly not the best deal, but at least you now know when the slowness will begin.
Are any of you on AT&T's unlimited plan? If so, have you ever been throttled?
[PhoneDog]