F.T.C. Accuses AT&T of Deceiving Consumers on Unlimited Data Plan

[Helix]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday charged AT&T with deceiving smartphone customers who signed up for an “unlimited” data plan only to find that AT&T drastically reduced the speed at which their phones could use the Internet once they had used a certain amount of data each month.

Since 2011, data speeds have been reduced for more than 3.5 million AT&T customers on more than 25 million occasions, the F.T.C. said.


AT&T notified customers in mid-2011 that they might face “reduced data speeds” if they were in the top 5 percent of users. But the commission said that notification was inadequate because it did not specify that customers’ speeds would be reduced by up to 95 percent — essentially making their smartphones inoperable for the purpose of accessing the Internet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/t...eceived-consumers-on-unlimited-data-plan.html

stay classy, AT&T.

 

[Brochacholomigo]

stay classy, AT&T.

 

[Crovax]

My ordeal was even worse where AT&T forced me onto a limited data plan, this was before they started their throttling policy. I switched to sprint which has real unlimited data

 

[Helix]

My ordeal was even worse where AT&T forced me onto a limited data plan, this was before they started their throttling policy. I switched to sprint which has real unlimited data

i paid full price for my S4 on Verizon to keep unlimited data a year or so ago, which was probably not the best idea. however, they spent so much time trying to get me to sign up for a tiered plan that it set off my bull**** alarm, and i also didn't feel like checking my data usage 15 times a month.

the fact that we pay this much for data at this point in the technology is fairly ridiculous. i'm not fatalistic about it, though. there is enough new competition recently that i am optimistic that there might still be a price drop at some point.

 

[Deuce]

i paid full price for my S4 on Verizon to keep unlimited data a year or so ago, which was probably not the best idea. however, they spent so much time trying to get me to sign up for a tiered plan that it set off my bull**** alarm, and i also didn't feel like checking my data usage 15 times a month.

the fact that we pay this much for data at this point in the technology is fairly ridiculous. i'm not fatalistic about it, though. there is enough new competition recently that i am optimistic that there might still be a price drop at some point.

Eventually, perhaps. The problem is that the big telcos got a head start via billions upon billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

 

[Helix]

Eventually, perhaps. The problem is that the big telcos got a head start via billions upon billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

and they're also allowed to consolidate to form anticompetitive entities.

 

[Oozlefinch]

i paid full price for my S4 on Verizon to keep unlimited data a year or so ago, which was probably not the best idea. however, they spent so much time trying to get me to sign up for a tiered plan that it set off my bull**** alarm, and i also didn't feel like checking my data usage 15 times a month.

With me and at least 10 others I know of, they were even more sneaky.

Myself and these 10 others had been grandfathered in with an older unlimited data plan. And when we deployed overseas, we all placed our phones on a military hold until we returned. Yet each and every once of us when we returned found out that about half way through the deployment Verizon and unfrozen our accounts, and they had been cancelled due to non-payment. All we could do is reactive our phones with a new contract, which of course none of them at that time had unlimited data.

We all choose to walk away and go with other carriers. I had used Verizon for years, and I will never go back to them ever again.

 

[Helix]

With me and at least 10 others I know of, they were even more sneaky.

Myself and these 10 others had been grandfathered in with an older unlimited data plan. And when we deployed overseas, we all placed our phones on a military hold until we returned. Yet each and every once of us when we returned found out that about half way through the deployment Verizon and unfrozen our accounts, and they had been cancelled due to non-payment. All we could do is reactive our phones with a new contract, which of course none of them at that time had unlimited data.

We all choose to walk away and go with other carriers. I had used Verizon for years, and I will never go back to them ever again.

that's a ****ing slimy thing for them to do. doesn't surprise me, though. not enough competition.

 

[Hicup]

ATT is the worst of the tecos by far. They screwed me years ago and I haven't looked at them since nor will I ever. I have a Virginmobile phone now and it's cheap, and does everything I need it to do.

Tim-

 

[obvious Child]

i paid full price for my S4 on Verizon to keep unlimited data a year or so ago, which was probably not the best idea.

Which really means you're paying like $1,200+ for that phone after subsidy recovery fees that are built into it. Ouch. Still though, at least you get real unlimited unlike AT&T or Sprint's "Unlimited" but so slow it's not usable.

however, they spent so much time trying to get me to sign up for a tiered plan that it set off my bull**** alarm, and i also didn't feel like checking my data usage 15 times a month.

the fact that we pay this much for data at this point in the technology is fairly ridiculous. i'm not fatalistic about it, though. there is enough new competition recently that i am optimistic that there might still be a price drop at some point.

Have you seen European data pricing? Try not to vomit in disgust as how badly we're getting screwed.

 

[Hard Truth]

"WASHINGTON— AT&T Inc. has agreed to pay $105 million to settle accusations that it added hundreds of millions of dollars in bogus third-party charges to subscribers’ wireless bills.

The settlement is the latest in a string of enforcement actions from regulators aimed at stopping mobile “cramming,” the practice of charging subscribers fees for third-party services they didn’t order. ....The FTC, Federal Communications Commission and all 51 state attorneys general collaborated on the investigation and joint settlement. The regulators pledged to continue cooperating on future cramming investigations at a news conference on Wednesday.

“For too long, consumers have been charged on their phone bills for things they did not buy,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said. “It’s estimated that 20 million people a year are caught in this kind of trap…costing hundreds of millions of dollars. It stops today for AT&T.”

The settlement stemmed from a complaint in which regulators accused AT&T of billing customers for horoscopes, ringtones, love tips and other third-party premium short message services, or PSMS, that they didn’t sign up for. The charges, typically $9.99 a month, were listed as “AT&T Monthly Subscriptions” on consumer phone bills, leaving customers to believe they were paying for services from AT&T. Regulators said AT&T kept at least 35% of the charges...."

Get caught shoplifting from stores a few times and you serve time. Steal millions as a corporation and innocent stockholders lose some dividends while nothing happens to the perpetrators.

ATT is an especially evil corporation that should go down.

 

[Hard Truth]

"PEG channels—public, educational, and government programming that generally takes the form of city council meetings and plays from the local middle school—are being treated as second-class citizens on AT&T's new U-Verse IPTV system, according to a new complaint to the FCC. Anger over AT&T's PEG handling has been buildling for some at the local level, but late last week it went national.

The FCC is now being asked to step in where state regulators so far have not to "rule in no uncertain terms" that the U-Verse PEG situation is "in violation of the Act and Commission rules and policies."

Everyone agrees on what's happening here, just not on whether it's a "feature" or a "bug." Instead of providing each PEG channel with an actual "channel" that subscribers can simply punch into a remote or surf past on accident, AT&T has bundled all the PEG channels from a broad area and dumped them onto channel 99. Users who want to see that city council meeting need to visit channel 99, click "OK," download a small app (from eight seconds to one minute), choose their community from a list of local towns, then choose a particular PEG channel from that community.

This PEG ghetto comes with consequences beyond inconvenience; second audio channel (SAP) programming is allegedly stripped, closed captioning text is not carried correctly, and users are unable to record the material using DVRs.

The issue affects U-Verse installations around the country, but it has flared hottest in Illinois, where AT&T has a duty to carry PEG channels under a statewide video franchising law. State Attorney General Lisa Madigan agreed to investigate the issue in January after cities claimed that AT&T wasn't living up to its responsibility to deliver PEG channels on actual "channels.""
FCC asked to probe AT&T treatment of public access channels | Ars Technica

No government entity has been willing to take on ATT over their blatant violations of state laws and contract provisions regarding PEG channels. They have now been violating the law for several years with no legal consequences.

 

[Helix]

Which really means you're paying like $1,200+ for that phone after subsidy recovery fees that are built into it. Ouch. Still though, at least you get real unlimited unlike AT&T or Sprint's "Unlimited" but so slow it's not usable.



Have you seen European data pricing? Try not to vomit in disgust as how badly we're getting screwed.

and not just for phone data. what we pay for cable internet is almost obscene.

BBC News - Why is broadband more expensive in the US?

 

[obvious Child]

and not just for phone data. what we pay for cable internet is almost obscene.

BBC News - Why is broadband more expensive in the US?

The Japanese and Koreans have gigabyte last mile internet for dirt cheap pricing.

Downtown Seoul Business District has data speeds that allow for downloading Blu-Ray quality movies in under a minute.

For the country that literally invented the internet, we're absurdly behind parts of the developed world.