See update at bottom of post. AT&T has removed tools and functionality for some grandfathered unlimited data wireless users that allowed them to track and monitor their data consumption. Several grandfathered unlimited AT&T users have written in to note that they no longer have an easy way to track usage. Both the AT&T usage app and dialing *data# now only provides them with SMS usage (not bandwidth consumed), and the previous simple data monitoring tool on AT&T's website has been eliminated completely.

It remains unclear if the removal of these tools for some users is intentional or an error.

While unlimited, these grandfathered users are of course throttled should they consume between 2 and 5GB of data, making simple measuring of consumption important to them. If impacted grandfathered unlimited users now want to monitor usage, they need to go through their bill, add up data from each individual day, and convert the totals from KB to MB to GB.

Broadband Reports reader ptrowski tells us he had a chat with AT&T support, where he was informed that AT&T's systems were "updated" to remove this useful functionality, but that the changes only impact grandfathered unlimited users.

"The explanation was since we are unlimited, there is no need to check how much data was used -- which is odd as they told me to check my usage to avoid throttling," says Ptrowski. "They tried to blame it on the site but the changes affect the app and the *code as well. I've talked to a few friends with unlimited, they see the same thing," says the user.

AT&T has of course been waging a quiet war on grandfathered unlimited users in the hopes of getting them to migrated to metered data plans, though it still seems odd and/or unlikely they'd intentionally pull useful tools that educate customers on data consumption. We've fired off an inquiry to AT&T as to whether this is a glitch or intentional, and I'll post any additional information I receive.

Update: AT&T says the change is temporary and full usage-tracking functionality will return to users shortly. There was no explanation given for what caused the tools to be pulled.