'Unlimited means unlimited': Did AT&T mislead their customers?
AT&T's unlimited data plan keeps causing trouble for the telecommunications giant. Last fall the Federal Trade Commission sued AT&T over it, and now the Federal Communications Commission is after it.
The FCC announced Wednesday for misleading subscribers about unlimited data plans.
FCC says the company slows down data speeds of unlimited data plan users after they've used a set amount of data within a billing cycle 鈥撀爓ithout telling their customers about this practice.
This violates the 2010 Open Internet Transparency Rule,聽says the FCC. Part of the rule聽 last year, but the court upheld the transparency requirement.
Unlimited data has been a thorn in AT&T's side for a while. Last fall the Federal Trade Commission saying AT&T "misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for 'unlimited' data plans while reducing their data speeds, in some cases by nearly 90 percent." That case is pending.
AT&T says it will "聽the FCC鈥檚 assertions," and says the FCC as legitimate and has known 鈥渇or years that all of the major carriers use it.鈥�
The company also added that it has been 鈥渇ully transparent鈥� with customers, 鈥減roviding notice in multiple ways.鈥�
AT&T did indeed post聽 on their website about reduced speeds. the company acknowledges that if unlimited data plan customers exceed a certain amount of data in a billing period, they 鈥渕ay experience reduced speeds.鈥� However, the notice adds, 鈥渕ore than 97 percent鈥� of smartphone customers will not be affected.
But the FCC doesn't consider that transparent enough. Their investigation found that 鈥渕illions of AT&T customers were affected ... for an average of 12聽days per billing cycle."
"Unlimited means unlimited," said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. "As today鈥檚聽action demonstrates, the Commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband聽providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits."
According to the FCC, AT&T began offering unlimited data plans in 2007. In 2011 the company began capping data speeds for unlimited plan customers, stressing that it would affect a ""聽of customers 鈥� only those "in the top 5 percent of our heaviest data users."聽
The FCC notes that since 2011, it has received thousands of complaints from AT&T customers who were 鈥渟urprised and felt misled鈥� by the company鈥檚 policy.
