UPDATE: 6/18/2015
T-Mobile is now defining 97% as 21 GB of data.
5/6/2015
A few days ago a story broke that T-Mobile's unlimited data plans may not truly be unlimited after all. Some T-Mobile customers had complained that their data was being throttled, and a few alleged T-Mobile employees chimed in to say that this was in fact true, and a policy that they have in place.
Today the website TmoNews seems to have uncovered a little bit more to this story. In fact, this policy is actually stated clearly and in plain English on T-Mobile's website specifically on the About T-Mobile Page and under the consumers tab.
To provide a good service experience for the majority of our customers, and minimize capacity issues and degradation in network performance, we may manage network traffic through prioritization. This means that customers who use more data than what is used by 97% of what all customers use in a given month, based on recent historical averages, might in some cases have their data usage prioritized below the data of other customers during times and in places of network contention.
Even though the policy is clearly spelled out on their website, it still does not make what they're doing right. They advertise unlimited 4G LTE data everywhere else and that's what it should be for those customers. Customers shouldn't have to dig through their website to find the fine print that spells out that your 4G LTE data speeds may be slowed down in favor of other customers.
T-Mobile still doesn't seem to like the term throttled for what is going on here (although many would argue it is), but rather likes to use the word prioritized. If they are unhappy with the word throttled, perhaps they should go Un-carrier and call their service Un-throttled or Un-prioritized.
This is also unfair in regards to customers who pay for unlimited ($30 extra per line). Yes, I used more than the average person: Because I ***PAY*** for more than the average person. So T-Mobile places me in data prioritization at 26 GB now, because that’s more than 97% of the user. But how many of those customers only pay for 2GB, 6GB, or 10GB? So, in a remarkable twist, T-MOBILE charges me for the extra data and then punishes me if I actually use it! I want to see what the AVERAGE person who ***PAYS*** for unlimited uses.
@Bestmvno
The days of fine print need to end. The FCC should mandate that those gotcha terms be in “Big Bold Print”. This practice doesn’t to be changing anytime soon so vendors adopt the practice. Just my two cents here.
If T-Mobile wants to be the trend setter, why not inform all customers who wants to sign up for unlimited data that the service could be throttled?
Yes I said it T-Mobile, “throttle”. Or degrade if y’all prefer this word instead.
It seems like I will be sticking with prepaid for the foreseeable future.
What’s also interesting is that ATT is now doing the same thing with those who are still using grandfathered unlimited data plans. Previously they were throttling unlimited LTE customers to 2G speeds once they reached 5 GB, now they are “prioritizing” users and speeds.
https://www.droid-life.com/2015/05/06/att-unlimited-data-plan-throttling/