AT&T Sued By United States, Accused Of Misleading Customers About Unlimited Data

The United States Government announced on Tuesday, that it is suing AT&T for misleading customers in regards to the unlimited data plans that it sold to customers. The lawsuit claims that customer’s data was throttled when a certain level of data was reached. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the throttling was deceptive, claiming that some customers saw a 90 percent decrease in speed due to the throttling. The FTC also stated that AT&T used the tactic to retain longtime customers by offering the unlimited plan, yet provide near dial up speed in some instances.

Data throttling has been in the news previously. Back in July, the Inquisitr reported that Verizon was facing similar charges. In that case, the FCC was concerned over the inequality of data speeds from one unlimited data customer to another. In AT&T’s case, the Federal Trade Commission has become involved, and feels this practice is an extreme disservice to customers and have changed the terms of the contracts without notice. According to Reuters, Edith Ramirez, Chairwoman for the FTC, explained the reasoning for filing suit against AT&T.

“They stopped providing the service that customers understood they had purchased when they entered into their contract. Customers would be subject to an early termination fee if they wanted to get out of their existing contract.”

AT&T has denied the allegations and has stated that they notified all of their customers about the throttling via a national press release. Wayne Watts, senior executive vice president and general counsel for AT&T explained to the Associated Press.

“We have been completely transparent with customers since the very beginning. We informed all unlimited data-plan customers via bill notices and a national press release that resulted in nearly 2,000 news stories, well before the program was implemented.”

The memo, which was sent out in July, stated that data speed would be reduced for select customers in an attempt to manage network congestion. However, the Federal Trade Commission states that the data throttling began in 2011 and was not enacted to manage any sort of network congestion.

Customers noticed the throttling almost immediately and many complained. Of those who complained, many left AT&T for services that offered faster speed and no throttling. AT&T has offered a solution on its website for those that are experiencing slow, or throttled, speeds. They simply suggest using Wi-Fi in place of cellular data.

Have you been impacted by data throttling? If so, what was your experience with the carrier?

[Photo Courtesy: Uber Gizmo]