DALLAS�Mobile data speed throttling has become a common practice among wireless operators, though most current means involve trimming network speeds once a customer reaches the limit of a “data bucket,” according to RCRwireless.com.�
Back in 20111, AT&T started “throttling” the top 5 percent of its data users and in 2012, it made the “un-throttled” portion of data usage for its “unlimited” customers 3 GB.� AT&T Mobility claimed that customers using more than 3 GB of data per billing cycle are the top 5% of consumers of data traffic on its network and thus need to have their data speeds cut in order for the carrier to sufficiently handle, according to the same article.
Verizon Wireless last year scaled back on plansto implement a �network optimization� program on its LTE network that would have limited network speeds for customers with �unlimited� data plans in some instances.� VZW recently stated that 76% of its total data traffic is now from its LTE network.
The Federal Trade Commissionfiled suit against AT&Tlast October, alleging the carrier �conned� customers by selling �unlimited data� plans then cutting down the data transfer speed when users hit certain data-use benchmarks.
