When exploring T-Mobile's new Android-driven G1 phone last Tuesday, we were the first to note that the device came with a 1GB cap, seriously stunting the benefits of a high speed device on a next-generation network. Not only was there a cap, but the fine print on the T-Mobile website warned users that they'd be throttled back to 50kbps should they exceed it. I asked T-Mobile just how strictly they planned to enforce this cap, and was not only informed it was a "soft" cap, but that they'd be removing the cap reference from their terms of service -- for now.

"We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network," says company spokesperson Amanda Ginther. "The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with all customers."

According to Ginther, the company still reserves the right to "temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance." In other words, they still plan to cap and throttle users if network congestion makes it necessary, they just removed the 1GB reference to diffuse what was quickly becoming a public relations firebomb.

When users get their hands on the new phone next month, we'll keep an eye peeled on just how stringently these network management policies are enforced.