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FTC has brought a lawsuit against AT&T for what it considers is its curtailing of unlimited data.
Surely, the very idea of unlimited data sounds like great fun! The exhilarating feeling one gets when one thinks of surfing the Net, watching video clips, employing GPS and making calls via video facility simply cannot be matched by anything else. It is almost like all of one’s wishes had been granted by a genie.
However, think for a single second about buying an unlimited data plan and then suddenly finding that it is limited. Oh, the disappointment and shocked sensibilities! Well, that is precisely what took place with regard to some of the customers of AT&T.
We’re getting a lot of Qs about @ATT. Please note, case will be decided in court. Want to file a complaint w/us? See http://t.co/c3UdnjFW26— FTC (@FTC) October 28, 2014
Starting seven years ago AT&T began lending unlimited data plans and the deal lasted until 2010. However, despite curtailing the facility, AT&T continued to renew the deals for customers. But, AT&T retarded the data speeds of these so-called unlimited packages. Thus the customers found to their surprise that their bandwidth had become dwarved.
While such data stoppage wasn’t exactly against the law, the fact that it was done in a shrewdly perceptive and underhand manner made it a legal matter. At present, the FTC is suing AT&T over this scheme that has bamboozled so many.
Lesson to mobile companies from FTC’s 1st data throttling case: If u promise unlimited data, ur on hook to deliver: http://t.co/Q29FL8Am2V— FTC (@FTC) October 28, 2014
The issue is that AT&T first gave unlimited data packages and then reduced the data (a phenomenon called data throttling) and didn’t tell its customers about this fact. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, AT&T kept the people subscribing to the unlimited data package from employing the facility they had paid a lot of money for.
They even had to pay termination fees if they left the platform earlier than usual. The FTC basically wants to stop AT&T from its data throttling activities. And this is especially so with regard to customers who paid for unlimited data plans.
Also refunds for those customers who paid termination fees have been demanded. It seems that AT&T is under fire for some of the mismanaging that it was guilty of. Let’s see how the lawsuit progresses since both sides will bring their points of view before the courtroom.
Source: FTC
