AT&T relents on use plan
Limits on ‘unlimited’ service kick in at 3GB
NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. backed away from an unpopular service policy after smartphone subscribers complained that the company placed unreasonable limits on its “unlimited data” plans.
The company said Thursday that it will slow down service for “unlimited data” subscribers after they reach 3 gigabytes of usage within a billing cycle.
The change relaxes a previous policy under which AT&T had been throttling service when subscribers entered the heaviest 5 percent of data users for that month and area.
Under the now scuttled program, there was no way for subscribers to find out what the limit was ahead of time. Thousands of subscribers complained about the policy online.
According to a 2011 Nielsen study, the average smartphone user consumes about 435 megabytes of data each month. A person would have to use roughly seven times that amount to hit 3 gigabytes.
An Associated Press story two weeks ago cited subscribers whose data service had been throttled at just over 2 gigabytes of data use. The 2 gigabyte barrier was lower than AT&T’s current “limited” plan provides.
AT&T stopped selling “unlimited data” plans nearly a year ago, but existing subscribers were allowed to keep it. The company charges $30 per month for the plan, the same amount it charges for 3 gigabytes of data on a new “tiered” or limited plan. AT&T has about 17 million “unlimited” smartphone subscribers.
AT&T’s reversal comes less than a week after iPhone user Matt Spaccarelli won a small claims lawsuit against the company for slowing down his service.