FTC sues AT&T for throttling “unlimited” data customers

According to CNET, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided that AT&T failed to deliver on the promise of unlimited data when it began the practice of slowing down the connection speed, known as “throttling”, of unlimited data subscribers who used “excessive” amounts of data, sometimes by as much as 90%.

The FTC filed the complaint in federal court on Tuesday, as reported by USA Today, charging the the second-largest wireless carrier in the United States failed to adequately inform customers who had subscribed to unlimited data plans that the company would throttle their data speeds if they used too much data in a given billing cycle.

“It’s baffling as to why the FTC would choose to take this action against a company that, like all major wireless providers, manages its network resources to provide the best possible service to all customers, and does it in a way that is fully transparent and consistent with the law and our contracts,” said Wayne Watts, AT&T general counsel and senior executive vice president, in response to the FTC’s accusations.