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Say it Ain’t So! AT&T Begins Throttling Data Heavy iPhone Users

By | December 9, 2011 | 6 comments
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“The five percent”, is a common intonation somewhat similar to the associating American citizens at present, as on top of the infamous “We’re the ninety-nine percent” Occupy Wall Street chants that have escalated through the US and the world in general.

AT&T has now implemented a similar scenario by throttling its “top five percent data users” to 2G speeds. Breaking the news in a, some could say cowardly fashion; AT&T subscribers received the news via text message.

According to Cult of Mac, the text message received by several subscribers read:

“Your data usage is among the top five percent of users. Data speeds for the rest of your account bill may be reduced.”

AT&T’s threatening of throttling heavy data users began in October this year, when the company announced a message targeting the top five percent of data users. Published on Cult of Mac, AT&T’s message read:

“Starting October 1, smartphone customers with unlimited data plans may experience reduced speeds once their usage in a billing cycle reaches the level that puts them among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users. These customers can still use unlimited data and their speeds will be restored with the start of the next billing cycle. Before you are affected, we will provide multiple notices, including a grace period.”

As we can see this week’s ‘threat’ by AT&T basically mirrors the one made back in October and gives no indication to users to just how much data they have to use to be affected. AT&T does however claim that the move should only affect jailbreakers on unlimited plans who are using tethering Cydia hacks to avoid subscribing to the official AT&T tethering plan.

Although this claim is dismissed by many a livid AT&T subscriber who have received the unwelcome warning despite being subscribed onto an official AT&T plan and using only a modest amount of data, as Zach Sklar posted on Cult of Mac, “I have an unlimited plan and I got this notice after only using 2.5GB of data last month!!! This is criminal of AT&T and a group lawsuit amongst their customers’ needs to begin.”

I don’t know about a lawsuit but AT&T is not doing itself any favors and users are unlikely to put up with having their data throttled to a snail’s pace and will invariably find another network for their iphone – Sprint for example, which currently has no data limits.

[via Cult of Mac]

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About Gabrielle: Gabrielle Pickard is a freelance writer based in the UK. Being partial for being up-to-date with the latest technology, Gabrielle has been writing gadget-based content since finishing her degree in 2002. Being the quickest to provide news about the latest trends stemming from the world of technology, writing for PadGadget/TapCentral, is therefore, for Gabrielle, the perfect post. Contact me via Twitter: @GabsP78

  • Anonymous

    Welcome to the truth!  ALL carriers CAN and WILL throttle your data usage if it according to them, “is excessive”.  Yes even Sprint will do it

    • Seabiscuit67@gmail.com

      I used 10 gb lasts month according to at&t. I don’t have a jail broken iPhone. I deliver beer all day and listen to the xm app. Streaming audio. Why have an app like that if the network can’t handle it. Why am I being punished. What about the last 4 years of dropped calls and network unavailable? Everyone wo has at&t deserves unlimited data for the horrible service and worst customer service ever!!! All you people calling us hogs! Screw you! When I see something good I grab it. I paid a 200 dollar fee 3 or 4 yrs ago to verizon to get the iPhone from AT&T.with unlisted data. It’s not my fault y’all were to slow to jump on the bandwagon. So it appears to me that everyone else is slowing down the top 5%. We were here first BITCHES!!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/madg1976 Marcos Duran

    The reality and the physics of cell phone networks cannot be overcome by marketing. Wireless bandwidth is very limited and we have asses streaming Pandora 18 hours a day over 3G. We all suffer because of people who abuse the resources we all are supposed to share.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WTHOMHZSMJDKIBZ7CNEPYNWJVM Bob B

      Except that streaming Pandora over 3G for many hours a day still shouldn’t run you into the 3-5gb+ range. A lot of the jailbreakers/etc were using their tethered iPhone as their primary internet and using 10gb+ and were proud of it! Greedy idiots like them ruined it for everyone else. It takes only a few rotten apples to spoil the bushel, and it happened. 

      Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us, jerks. :/

      What might happen is that when they roll out their LTE version, we’ll see monthly limits go up a bit as a marketing ploy.

    • Dave

      I use my iPhone to catch up on my favorite tv shows using the features that AT&T offered as part of their advertising when they sold me the phone and a unlimited service plan. One hour of Netflix equates to 1gb of data. After a couple of tv shows I’m throttled for overuse. AT&T has oversold their network to the point that they can no longer honor their agreement and are using semantics and a total lack of scruples to make those of us who use the phone as advertised pay for their greed. Instead of spending some of the profits by adding more cell towers to cover the added burden of their huge sales success the iPhone has been for them, they say “we’re going to screw the top 5%”. Now I am having to read insults from idiots who think fraudulent practices are ok if it doesn’t affect them. I live in South Seattle, right in the heart of the area. I the 3 years ive been with AT&T, the nearest tower to my house remains over 3 miles away and I barely get service there. When I first signed up and discovered this dead zone, I spoke with a rep who said they would be adding more towers to help with the demand and that I should be patient. Here I am 3 years later and no new towers here in Seattle, I still lose reception for miles and miles of Interstate 5 between here and California. It’s not that we are data hogs as much as AT&T OVER SOLD their network and ran with the money instead of building up the infrastructure to meet their commitment.

  • Carlos_gutierrez21

    It’s not even the 5%. If you go over 2gb, they will slow you down immidiatly. Something needs to be done. I’ve contacted them and all the say it’s to connect to wifi. That defeats the porpoise of having data plan on you mobile. I’m tired of AT&T and their policies.