AT&T Will Only Throttle Unlimited Plans After 22GB Of Data

In June, the Federal Communications Commission fined AT&T 0 million – the largest fine the agency has ever imposed – accusing it of misleading customers into thinking they were signing up for unlimited plans, then throttling their speeds once they used a certain amount of data. Even though AT&T has moved the finish line a long, long way, it’s still ironic that an unlimited plan does, in fact, have some clearly defined limits.

This seems like a major victor for anyone who’s managed to hang on to a an unlimited plan from AT&T. While existing customers have been allowed to keep their unlimited data, AT&T has severely curtailed the benefits of those plans through strict throttling policies and the inability to tether a tablet or computer without additional fees. According to AT&T, unlimited data plan holders would now get 22 GB of high speed data per month before throttling happens.

When the term unlimited data plan is said, one would expect that you could use as much data as you like without worrying about it being capped, right? AT&T cites technology “evolution” for its policy update.

Verizon and Sprint have each stopped throttling unlimited data users. And that their network management has evolved over time and they can now change the throttling threshold to 22GB. Consumers also complained that they could not cancel service without having to pay early-termination fees. We will notify customers during each billing cycle when their data usage reaches 16.5GB (75% of 22GB) so they can adjust their usage to avoid network management practices that may result in slower data speeds. Using AT&T’s Wi-Fi doesn’t count against you, so connecting to this when possible will help lessen the load.

For its part, AT&T stays far from the “data throttling” nomenclature, instead calling it “network management”.