AT&T sued by the U.S

[Aeno]

As someone living in Finland, I am terribly confused about these limited data things.

Gives you a reason to "upgrade" to a higher open channel of bandwidth. Because $$$.

[Keile]

They may have problems successful suing, however.

The data IS unlimited, they do not just cut you off. They throttle it, but you are still getting data coverage. They use a loophole to call it "unlimited" when in reality it is "Unlimited capacity, limited SPEED"

[Touch of Anarchy]

As someone living in Finland, I am terribly confused about these limited data things.

Because so many people had unlimited data, it would cause a lot of traffic to our carrier's "cellular towers" (or so they said), thus resulting in them no longer offering unlimited data to new customers, specifically AT&T and Verizon.

What I don't understand though is how people feel they are not getting unlimited data. If you have the unlimited data package with AT&T or Verizon, you most certainly have access to a universe of data if you so choose to use it. Your speed however is measured in fast or slow. Granted, I'm not too up in arms though because I have about 10 gigs of data on LTE speeds, so I'm not in the situation.

I guess it's their way of saying "Jump on the bandwagon; pay for it like the rest of us."

[Wilian]

You can only download + Upload x amount of data in a month, after that you either get throttled or charged fees for exceeding x.

I am quite aware of that, it was more of a off-hand commentary as in general, unless it's especially specified, all data plans in Finland have no technical gap at which point it's starting to be throttled.

Because so many people had unlimited data, it would cause a lot of traffic to our carrier's "cellular towers" (or so they said), thus resulting in them no longer offering unlimited data to new customers, specifically AT&T and Verizon.

What I don't understand though is how people feel they are not getting unlimited data. If you have the unlimited data package with AT&T or Verizon, you most certainly have access to a universe of data if you so choose to use it. Your speed however is measured in fast or slow. Granted, I'm not too up in arms though because I have about 10 gigs of data on LTE speeds, so I'm not in the situation.

I guess it's their way of saying "Jump on the bandwagon; pay for it like the rest of us."

Sounds like awesome PR jargon from one of those companies. Coverage in Finland is quite great, at the moment running with 24mb 4G that is never throttled and only for 15e a month on top of my 100mb cable

[Kraenen]

Perhaps if people are so cynical they should voice something and be the change you want.

I think that's what people are doing.

[poser765]

We've all seen this script to many times. Nothing will be done :P

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I don't understand how anyone could use unlimited data lol, I have a 10gb plan and I don't think I've ever used half of it I guess I use my phone mostly at home though. And as an internet radio while jogging, that is most of my usage.

This month I've used about 5.25gb of data...and I barely do anything heavy with my phone anymore (it's old and starts getting really slow when I surf or watch videos). I burn through data in a hurry at work. I'll often spend 14 hours away from wifi with a ton of downtime so it helps kill the time.

Not everyone needs unlimited data but a few people in certain circumstances can certainly use it.

[zealo]

Perhaps if people are so cynical they should voice something and be the change you want.

People are doing so, but currently it seems to be focused on efforts to stop the FCC trying to kill Net Neutrality and classify ISP's as common carriers.

[Daethz]

White Collar Crime: Do something illegal, commit massive fraud, get sued for a few bucks, noone gets any jail time, free to do it again, and punishment wont be more severe.

Throttling in any situation should be illegal.
Government should start a taskforce to create software to detect throttling.
NSA should do somthing usefull, and try to detect or spy on these companies and stop them from throttling, you know, instead of doing nothing but spying on law abiding citizens.

[Tinykong]

Data throttling is just a way to pilfer more money from customers.

Tell me, AT&T, how a customer that pays for two 5gb packages isn't causing congestion, but a customer that uses 5.01gb of unlimited is?

[Belize]

Perhaps if people are so cynical they should voice something and be the change you want.

Talking to AT&T is like talking to a retarded rock. Their internet service is worst than Comcast IMO.

Sure we could call them out, but they live in their own little world of "everything is fine".

[Xar226]

To be clear, this isn't a case of AT&T selling an unlimited plan and throttling it. That would be alright, assuming such was written into their legal text.

The issue is that AT&T has not sold unlimited plans for four years. To avoid the backlash, they let existing customers keep their unlimited plans. If they kept their account current and didn't choose to change plans, they were grandfathered in. Now, AT&T is trying to punish those customers who have kept their legacy unlimited plans by throttling them in an effort to push them onto their fixed-data plans, which are more profitable than what the customer was actually sold.

They deserve every bit of this lawsuit and more.

[Yunru]

Because so many people had unlimited data, it would cause a lot of traffic to our carrier's "cellular towers" (or so they said), thus resulting in them no longer offering unlimited data to new customers, specifically AT&T and Verizon.

What I don't understand though is how people feel they are not getting unlimited data. If you have the unlimited data package with AT&T or Verizon, you most certainly have access to a universe of data if you so choose to use it. Your speed however is measured in fast or slow. Granted, I'm not too up in arms though because I have about 10 gigs of data on LTE speeds, so I'm not in the situation.

I guess it's their way of saying "Jump on the bandwagon; pay for it like the rest of us."

You know thats a lie right?


Those things are everywhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site

[Bayuriel]

Great, another excuse for this shitty company to raise their rates, did you know AT&T is convinced that 3mbps is fast in 20fucking14? Not only do they think thats adequate but they also think its worth $60/month and of course, are also a local monopoly.

[Ealyssa]

In switzerland we now have "adsl like" plans.

Unlimited data (aka data are 100% free). But the price increase depending on the bandwidth you want. Maybe they should try that kind of more "fair" offer.