AT&T to Appeal Ruling in Throttling Case
AT&T is appealing a California judge's ruling against the telecommunications giant over its practice of slowing the Internet speed of mobile phone customers with unlimited plans -- a practice known as throttling that is gaining wider use in an industry looking to cut costs.
The company's move following Fridays ruling should come as no surprise: Half of its smartphone users -- about 17 million customers -- are on so-called unlimited plans. It could find itself in a legal nightmare if other customers win similar cases.
AT&T isn't alone in throttling data usage. Verizon has a form of throttling called "data optimization" that went into effect last fall. Data optimization differs from throttling, the company explains, because it's based on network traffic. So if you're a top tier user and you're near a congested data node, you may experience a slowdown, but if you're not near a congested node, your data speed could be normal.
T-Mobile also is getting into the game. It sent a legal notice this weekend to customers who are on unlimited data plans explaining that starting in April, they will no longer have unlimited data when in an area that piggybacks on another provider's network. Instead, the notice says, those customers will be limited to a certain amount of usage and will be cut off the Internet until their next billing cycle when they go over. Once they travel back into a T-Mobile service area, they will be able to get back on the Internet, but throttling will occur after a certain amount of usage. The company is allowing customers who complain to avoid early termination fees if they want to cancel their service before the changes take place.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/250721/atandt_to_appeal_ruling_in_throttling_case.html
AT&T is clearly in the wrong here. But I bet they appeal this up to The Supreme Court.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)At the very least, they should be sued for false advertising.
primavera
(5,191 posts)Undoubtedly somewhere in the fine print of the contracts everyone has to sign but no one ever reads is some provision allowing them to make whatever changes they like and the consumer has no recourse or, if they have any recourse at all, it's through an arbitration in which they get to hand pick their own arbitrator guaranteed to take their side. You can probably find it right next to the provision that allows them to sell their customers' children into slavery. Contract law has become a total joke - the notion of consent between informed parties has long since given way to "economic necessity," i.e., the need for corporations to become obscenely wealthy at the expense of consumer victims.
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)Curly, that is.
You're probably a Shemp fan.
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)The only throttling I knew about was the times I went home from school with a note from my teacher about doing my impression of Curly at school.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)So, all those years of doing my Curly impression went for naught.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Of course there is no proof that the posters who say that they are women actually are women.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-90132.html
Then again it could just be YOUR impression of Curly that is the problem, nyak, nyak, nyak.
New Yawker
(62 posts)until AT&T knocks it off.
Everyone should have unlimited data plan.
Right now I'm very pleased with Sprint. They don't act like a$$holes.
leftyohiolib
(5,917 posts)but but but if i do that then i'll have to talk to my kids instead of being on the phone nor can i have a distraction while im driving. if i dump my cell phone i'll lose the ability to be ripped off by my cell phone company. everyone has an excuse
if these companies get away with it sprint will be next
apnu
(8,756 posts)Cell phones are as important to Americans as cars. The telcos know this and its time (they think) to take advantage of their monopoly over people's lives.
Khellendross
(28 posts)Fearless
(18,421 posts)ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)period. I doubt that our cowering courts and corprat-run government will slap the greedy paws of a big corprat like AT & T though. And certainly the Corprat Crap Court won't. Pfft.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)Instead of building infrastructure with the massive profits they've gained, they all paid themselves first. Then they began buying up the available infrastructure from weaker competitors rather than actually expanding the ability to carry data.
Now demand has outrun the ability to carry it, and as usual they expect to shift the blame to the users who thought "unlimited" was somehow actually... not limited.
But the thing to notice is not the "blame the user" game, but that AT&T must already be dangerously close to full capacity, with no exit strategy, just like RIM. One might guess that it's only a matter of time before a Blackberry-like "rolling collapse" manifests itself.