AT&T has long dealt with criticism from consumers over the truth behind their unlimited data plans. Many users purchased the more expensive unlimited data plans only to find out later that once they reached a certain threshold of data their bandwidth would be throttled, making it almost impossible to use their data plans for even the most basic tasks.
The FCC has now thrown their hat into the ring by filing suit against AT&T for their deceptive practices in regard to their unlimited data plans.

The AT&T Argument
For years, AT&T and other bandwidth providers have maintained that throttling the bandwidth of heavy users has been the only way to guarantee quality service to all of their users. AT&T maintains that they only throttled users at times of heavy network congestion in an attempt to provide the best quality of service to all of their users even during congested traffic periods.

The Reality Of Their Throttling
However, in practice, AT&T didn't actually throttle all of their users during heavy traffic times but instead focused their throttling efforts on users with the more expensive unlimited data plans. “The speed reductions and service restrictions in effect under Defendant’s throttling program are not determined by real-time network congestion at a particular cell tower. Throttled customers are subject to this reduced speed even if they use their smartphone at a time when Defendant’s network has ample capacity to carry the customer’s data, or the use occurs in an area where the network is not congested … since October 2011, Defendant has throttled its customers more than 25 million times, affecting more than 3.5 million unique customers.”

The Heart of the Matter
Through all the claims on both sides, it all comes down to one simple fact. AT&T advertised a service to their customers and then intentionally failed to provide that service to those customers. At the same time, they failed to adequately inform their customers about the details of the unlimited plans before selling them the plans, and they made no effort to allow users who are unhappy with the service to escape the expensive penalties required for early termination of the contract.

Too Little, Too Late
While the FCC deserves to be applauded for calling out AT&T over these deceptive business practices, the fact is there is very little reason for AT&T to change those practices. Most users have already made the switch to the tiered plans when their unlimited contract comes up for renewal to escape the throttling of the unlimited plans. While AT&T has thus far refused to disclose their throttling practices to their customers and has refused to end the unlimited plans altogether, the fact remains that today only a small minority of users make use of these more expensive plans.

Many wireless carriers have been allowed to get away with deceptive practices and false advertising for far too long, making this suit by the FCC welcome news for wireless customers everywhere. Perhaps with this latest lawsuit, other wireless carriers might see the writing on the wall and begin to change many of their business practices to avoid being the next company sued by the FCC.