Hey, remember when T-Mobile lied about its new unlimited plan? Well the FCC sure does, and now it’s making T-Mobile pay. How much you ask? $48 million dollars, which is just pocket change for these big companies.
In 2015 we found out that T-Mobile was slowing down data for customers in the top 3% data usage tier – about 17GB of data/month. Customers only found out about this after a bunch of complaints were lodged against the carrier. MetroPCS users were also throttled under this tier as well.
But the FCC says the throttling itself isn’t the issue. It’s the way T-Mobile marketed it. Saying that a cellular plan is unlimited, while throttling users at the same time is too deceptive, plus it violates the 2010 Open Internet transparency rule.
The rule covers disclosures about “network management practices, performance, and commercial terms of service.” and applies to service descriptions, including expected and actual broadband speed and latency, among others.
In a statement, FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said,
“Consumers should not have to guess whether so-called ‘unlimited’ data plans contain key restrictions, like speed constraints, data caps, and other material limitations.”
T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers that were affected by this throttling are eligible for 4GB of additional mobile data under the Simple Choice MINT plan. They also get a 20% discount on in-stock phone accessories.
T-Mobile will pay for this through a $35.5 million consumer benefit program, while another $7.5 million will be paid directly to the US Treasury. Finally, $5 million in services and equipment will be provided to schools in the United States.
Have you been affected by T-Mobile throttling? Do you use at least 17GB of data per month? Let us know in the comments below.
Actually yes I have… how do I get to be part of all this?? Once you hit 10gb it slows down to barely nothing to where nothing loads!
Part of what? Customers aren’t getting any money…enjoy your,”20% discount on in-stock phone accessories.” LOL
I’ve complained about this for months now…im so glad to hear they are finally doing something about this.
My T-Mobile has always sucked. I don’t even think I have high speed like they claim. My first phone would periodically go out for no reason. Especially on the night my beloved dog was dying. They are liars.
Not enough, we should get unlimited for real for all the years they charged and lie to us. They didn’t cheat schools or government. We should get pay…
I’ve been with Tmobile for over 10 years and have noticed how my internet slows down and I’m suppose to have unlimited everything.
Heck I was affected by this I have been wondering why and always wondering why if I have unlimited why is my service so slow alot of time I just went on the tmobile unlimited all plan
Oh yes I have also been with tmobile for over ten years
I most certainly have a few months ago about 2/3 i used a lot of data that month because i was in the hospital having chemo done because i have terminal cancer leukemia and i had nothing to do so i stayed on my phone a lot and i notice that my phone had slowed down a lot so i went to my T-Mobile app to message them to found out what was happing and that’s when i seen it on my bills it said something alone the lines of my data was being slow down prioritized due to too much data being used so I called them and they said after about 25 or 26 GB That i use more data than about 97% of costume on that tower i was one needless to say i went off and with in a few days it went back to normal but it should of never happened to begin with it’s not good business .
I’m always experiencing this every month since I switched to ‘unlimited’.
It’s quite frustrating since I use my phone for lyft and postmates.
This is ridiculous. Every other cell phone company either throttles the speed or stops it completely at some point. “Unlimited data” is not the same as “unlimited high speed data”. All this fine is going to do is cost the customers in the long run.