AT&T Wireless announced it will begin throttling data speeds for its unlimited data customers in an attempt to punish "data hogs," or high-capacity users, and stop data congestion. Too bad it will begin in October, just about the same time Apple's iPhone 5 is expected to debut.
From 9to5 Mac:
The heaviest users will see significant speed decreases for one billing cycle once they go over a threshold of data (we’re guessing 2-4GB?). These heavy users will still be able to access the network, but at a much slower speed. At the start of the next billing cycle, their speeds will return to normal. We don’t have numbers for AT&T’s throttle speeds but Virgin takes you down to 256Kb/s once you’ve reached their 2.5GB limit (not too bad actually – sometimes we’re happy to get 256kbs). Interestingly, Virgin’s throttle also will also be implemented in the first week of October which may indicate that they’ll be carrying a certain high profile mobile device as well.
We're not convinced that data hogs are causing all of AT&T's network issues, or that throttling data speeds alleviates data congestion.
The cause of AT&T's network issues stemmed from the carrier underestimating demand for the first iPhone and becoming so overloaded it needed a $2 billion upgrade to keep its customers from jumping ship. And we certainly don't care for the "We don't have a problem, you have problem" attitude that AT&T seems to have adopted.
