T-Mobile is being accused of deception, lying and betrayal. OK, maybe that’s a little much, but in California there are many who aren’t too thrilled about its “unlimited data” advertisements that come along with the myTouch Slide 3G and the Nexus One. However, T-Mobile is capping data usage at 5GB or 10GB before it cuts off access to the 3G data network and throttles it way down to virtually unusable speeds.
Now, for most users it seems 5GB or 10GB of data is far more than enough for a single month. After all, even continuous radio and video streaming throughout the day, along with web browsing and e-mail, still might not send a user into the 4-5GB range. But a deal is a deal and selling handsets at a lower rate just to get folks to sign up for a contract on the promise that data will be truly unlimited, and reneging on that promise is against the law.
CED reports:
Alvarez found out about the data limit in May when he received a text message from the carrier stating: “Your data usage in this billing cycle has exceeded 10 GB; data throughput for the remainder of the cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less.”
So now Alvarez is stuck with a two-year contract and is unable to experience unlimited data services that he says were promised. The reduction has rendered his phone unable to send e-mails, download music and videos, and upload photos and applications.
We’re not going to judge and ask what the hell Mr. Alvarez was doing to exceed 10GB of data usage, but it does appear that T-Mobile isn’t keeping up on its end.
It is understandable that carriers may want to throttle or cap its data plans in order to keep hardcore power users like the one mentioned above from ruining the experience for everyone else. Just take a look at what happened to AT&T’s network where thousands of iPhone users are trying to squeeze as much data as they possibly can all at once.
What’s a little confusing here is that most advertisements will claim unlimited data, but will stipulate in contracts that data is actually capped or throttled after a certain point. Perhaps it’s time for carriers to be a little more clear when it comes to the services they’re selling.
[Via: CED]