My billing cycle ends tomorrow. I just got the text message saying I was in the 5% so I called them. I played dumb when I called to see what I could find out. I was told the average user uses 2 GB of data and since I received the message it means I was THE top user in my market. I feigned that I was so surprised and what does that mean. She told me that being the top user that meant I was congesting the system on my market. I asked her what my market was as I travel from CT to RI every day. The market is based on where your address is. She explained that I used 5 GB of data and that hurts the network for other users. I was told I would receive a total of 3 warnings before being slowed down. When asked what I would be slowed down to she had no idea, just everything would be slow. Of course I was told I could move to the 3 GB plan for $30 and never be slowed down, but would pay $10 per GB. I guess I should be proud that 5GB of usage makes me the king.
It doesn't take into account people who travel frequently from region to region.
The idea of a "market" being based on your address is useless. When someone travels from NYC to LA, etc. there's no way to label them a top 5% user based on a specific region. How can AT&T even claim this?
Aside from there being no proof of congestion, there's no way to know if AT&T is really doing the "top 5%"... make AT&T prove it.
Reach out to the FCC/FTC and file a complaint based on these points.
I will do that. I also explained that using their iPhone app I was not able to view my usage as my wife added international texting. When I look on their site it shows 5.1 GB. When you look at the usage graph it shows 2.9 GB. I know it is calculated per billing cycle but it can be quite misleading to others.
As I was saying earlier in the thread, for "unlimited" plan customers, AT&T has provided no proof of the accuracy of its internal bandwidth meters, and thus there is no consumer-transparent basis under which this "top 5%" throttling practice is determined and implemented. The FTC needs to investigate this deceptive business practice in which a plan is marketed as "unlimited" but is throttled to the point of useless with no clear criteria based on users who travel frequently from region to region.
AT&T is deceptively marketing an "unlimited" data plan which is throttled to useless speeds based on video evidence. You can point the FTC to this YouTube video:
This also applies to the tiered data offerings: that's another reason to ensure that these meters are accurate. Who's checking this? No one I'll bet... Why would they?
All the more reason for the FTC to make AT&T come clean on this.
As for the FCC:
Select "Deceptive or unlawful advertising or marketing by a communications company (does NOT include Telemarketing)"
You will fill out "Form 2000A - Deceptive or Unlawful Advertising and Promotion Complaint"
The complaint has the same basis as above. AT&T is deceptively marketing an "unlimited" data plan which is throttled to useless speeds based on video evidence. You can point the FCC to the YouTube video above.
Thanks for the help, I knew it was a matter of time until I got one. What I find interesting is when an email showed up as well you can see it says "Domestic Restricted Data Cap data usage = 5131". So I know the 5131 is MB, but the Donestic Restricted Data Cap is a very interesting term for an unlimited account. Also being told that that average user uses 2 GB the email states I was On the category on average using 12 times the average data use. Wouldn't that be aroun 24 GB?