AT&T on Friday confirmed that it will throttle the data speeds of mobile customers who use an "extraordinary" amount of data, even if they are on an unlimited plan.
The network slowdowns will begin October 1, but AT&T insisted that it will only affect the top 5 percent of its heaviest data users and that "this change will never impact the vast majority of our customers." Service will not be cut off, but heavy users will experience reduced speeds until their next billing cycle begins.
AT&T promised to provide "multiple notices, including a grace period," before throttling speed.
AT&T did not provide details on exactly how much data someone had to consume in order to fall into the top 5 percent category, except to say that these people are, on average, using 12 times more data than the average smartphone data customer. They are usually "streaming very large amounts of video and music daily over the wireless network, not Wi-Fi," according to a spokesman. AT&T pointed to streaming video apps, remote Web camera apps, sending large data files (like video), and some online gaming as examples of data-intensive activities.
AT&T might "reduce the data throughput speed experienced by a very small minority of smartphone customers who are on unlimited plans - those whose extraordinary level of data usage puts them in the top 5 percent of our heaviest data users in a billing period," AT&T said.
AT&T urged those concerned about their data usage to use Wi-Fi when available since it does not "create wireless network congestion or count toward your wireless data usage."
"The bottom line is our customers have options. They can choose to stay on their unlimited plans and use unlimited amounts of data, but may experience reduced speeds at some point if they are an extraordinarily heavy data user," AT&T said. "If speed is more important, they may wish to switch to a tiered usage plan, where customers can pay for more data if they need it and will not see reduced speeds."
AT&T ditched unlimited plans in June 2010 in favor of several tiered options: 200MB of data for $15 per month; 2GB of data (not 5GB, like the previous cap) for $25 per month; and tethering for $20 per month. Existing customers with unlimited plans could keep them. However, like T-Mobile, which recently introduced an "unlimited" plan that throttled users after 2GB, AT&T's unlimited data option is no longer truly unlimited.
AT&T blamed the change on the "exploding demand for mobile data." The company is responding to the spectrum crunch in several ways, AT&T said, including network investments, and now, throttling the heaviest data users.
Verizon, meanwhile, implemented a plan like the one coming to AT&T back in February. Like its rival, Verizon did not provide an exact threshold for when someone might expect to be throttled, but said the change would affect the top 5 percent of Verizon data users.