AT&T is changing its data throttling policy after the Federal Communications Commission levied a hefty $100 million fine for misleading its user base about what unlimited data plan means. The new policy states that AT&T is upgrading its data cap to 22GB monthly before they impose the throttling policy.
According to The Verge, before the new policy was imposed, unlimited data plan subscribers are downgraded to a slow lane once they reach 5GB of data cap on their monthly allowance. It is also worth noting that the old policy imposed by AT&T states that throttling is only allowed in certain areas that are experiencing network and data congestion. Once the traffic congestion eases, subscribers should be able to retain full network speeds.
AT&T released a statement regarding the latest policy change and was posted by Fox News, part of it reads "We recently revised our practices such that Unlimited Data Plan smartphone customers can now use 22GB of high-speed data during a billing period before becoming subject to network management practices that might result in reduced data speeds and increased latency."
AT&T has been offering unlimited data plans for many year already but up until now many of its subscribers are still in the dark about what unlimited data really means. In the past three years, AT&T has been throttling customer data speeds when they reach a certain data cap even they are subscribed to an unlimited plan.
FCC previously ruled that under the new Internet neutrality rules, throttling is only allowed when a certain area experiences network congestions. Imposing throttling protocols outside of that rule is considered unlawful.