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AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ data

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AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ data - The Washington Post

The Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country's second-largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for "unlimited" data plans. The FCC found that when customers used up a certain amount of data watching movies or browsing the Web, AT&T "throttled" their Internet speeds so that they were much slower than normal. Millions of AT&T customers were affected by the practice, according to the FCC. The fine, which AT&T says it will fight, is the largest ever levied by the agency.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

FWIW, the FCC's notice states:

In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture and Order, we find that AT&T Mobility, LLC (AT&T or Company) apparently willfully and repeatedly violated the Commission’s Open Internet Transparency Rule by: (1) using the misleading and inaccurate term “unlimited” to label a data plan that was in fact subject to prolonged speed reductions after a customer used a set amount of data; and (2) failing to disclose the express speed reductions that it applied to “unlimited” data plan customers once they hit a specified data threshold.

The entire notice can be found at: https://www.fcc.gov/document/att-mobility-faces-100m-fine-misleading-consumers-0
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

They will fight it, AT&T does whatever it can to screw over their customers with just about all of their products.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

T banked $3 billion 1Q.

$100M fine to them is like a $10 parking ticket to you and me.

Cost of doing business.

Yawn.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

T banked $3 billion 1Q.

$100M fine to them is like a $10 parking ticket to you and me.

Cost of doing business.


Yawn.

I agree; the fine should have been higher.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

Verizon does the same thing.

AT&T and Verizon offer the same level of "quality" cell service that Comcast and Time Warner offer with cable, IMHO.

The consumer can't take their business elsewhere, because there's really nowhere to go.

Verizon includes that information in the fine print. AT&T has never included that information.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

They will fight it, AT&T does whatever it can to screw over their customers with just about all of their products.

and they tend to disregard the law.

"....Federal and state laws require AT&T to give community programming similar access to what the other channels on its U-verse service get. AT&T believes it does so, but advocates for public access make a compelling case when they argue that the communications giant falls short.

Anyone who has used U-verse, as I have, knows that public, educational and government programming is consigned to a digital ghetto that makes public programming hard to use. Viewers must go to the dreaded Channel 99, and from there navigate toward the towns they want. While U-verse subscribers can digitally record up to four programs at once, they cannot digitally record from Channel 99. They can't even plan their viewing, because the digital guide available for all the other U-verse channels is not available for public, educational and government programming...."

AT&T's U-verse service give short shrift to public-access programming - tribunedigital-chicagotribune

The article I quoted is six years old but so far (AFAIK) no government agency has succeeded in getting ATT to comply with the law and the franchise agreements they signed.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

T banked $3 billion 1Q.

$100M fine to them is like a $10 parking ticket to you and me.

Cost of doing business.

Yawn.

Yuuup. To be even more exact, it's a $37.75 parking ticket if you make $50K in a year.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

and they tend to disregard the law.

"....Federal and state laws require AT&T to give community programming similar access to what the other channels on its U-verse service get. AT&T believes it does so, but advocates for public access make a compelling case when they argue that the communications giant falls short.

Anyone who has used U-verse, as I have, knows that public, educational and government programming is consigned to a digital ghetto that makes public programming hard to use. Viewers must go to the dreaded Channel 99, and from there navigate toward the towns they want. While U-verse subscribers can digitally record up to four programs at once, they cannot digitally record from Channel 99. They can't even plan their viewing, because the digital guide available for all the other U-verse channels is not available for public, educational and government programming...."

AT&T's U-verse service give short shrift to public-access programming - tribunedigital-chicagotribune

The article I quoted is six years old but so far (AFAIK) no government agency has succeeded in getting ATT to comply with the law and the franchise agreements they signed.

That is not quite what this case is about.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

They will just raise their prices across the board. Companies dont pay fines OR taxes...their customers do.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

Verizon includes that information in the fine print. AT&T has never included that information.

Did not know that!

Sneaky bastards. :mrgreen:

That's adding insult to injury.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

Verizon does the same thing.

AT&T and Verizon offer the same level of "quality" cell service that Comcast and Time Warner offer with cable, IMHO.

The consumer can't take their business elsewhere, because there's really nowhere to go.

Well said, Sprint too! I want to leave Sprint and Comcast but sadly am having a hard time finding better alternatives.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

Backs up completely my posts I got warned about recently. Absolute nonsense. These are illegal monopolies that hurt the American people directly.

Superb thread. Stand against the cartels.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

They will just raise their prices across the board. Companies dont pay fines OR taxes...their customers do.

Correct bit incomplete. If a business has to raise prices to pay fines, that makes them less competitive and does hurt them. It would however take a larger fine than this to cause them to raise their prices.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

T banked $3 billion 1Q.

$100M fine to them is like a $10 parking ticket to you and me.

Cost of doing business.

Yawn.

Corporates will kill for a 3% increase in stock. The real question is did they lose out with this underhanded tactic, in light of the fine, and if this finding will be used as ammunition by angry customers in lawsuits. This isn't necessarily the end of it.

What will be especially pathetic though is if the FCC allows them to continue advertising as "unlimited"

But yeah our ISPs are such huge assholes that they're exhibit A in why corporatism fails. It's about the worst in the world in terms of value for cost. The duopoly of AT&T and comcast leaves consumers with no worthwhile options, kind of like dems/repubs.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

My att is working faster than ever now. Hmmmmmm....
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

Verizon does the same thing.

AT&T and Verizon offer the same level of "quality" cell service that Comcast and Time Warner offer with cable, IMHO.

The consumer can't take their business elsewhere, because there's really nowhere to go.

AT&T (Bell Labs) is pretty much responsible for bringing us in to the modern world...they pretty much invented the framework of the modern Internet etc

Verizon can suck it, they've only ever been s "me too" company
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

This is about wireless plans, not DSL.

I've had the plan since my first iphone 3G. I did read they throttled back speed at 10GB or something, but I never noticed.

I will happily accept the money from the class action lawsuit, though. When's that happening?
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

This is about wireless plans, not DSL.

I've had the plan since my first iphone 3G. I did read they throttled back speed at 10GB or something, but I never noticed.

I will happily accept the money from the class action lawsuit, though. When's that happening?

No time soon, AT&T intends to contest this further (I have no idea exactly what that means though.)
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

They will just raise their prices across the board. Companies dont pay fines OR taxes...their customers do.

Yep, everyone here is saying "yeah, fine ATT!" But in the end, it's the government taking more of our money.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

This is about wireless plans, not DSL.

I've had the plan since my first iphone 3G. I did read they throttled back speed at 10GB or something, but I never noticed.

I will happily accept the money from the class action lawsuit, though. When's that happening?

You will get about 3 cents, while the lawyers will rake in millions for their cut.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

Backs up completely my posts I got warned about recently. Absolute nonsense. These are illegal monopolies that hurt the American people directly.

Superb thread. Stand against the cartels.

Actually, this does nothing of the sort. Doesn't matter what ATT did. Illegal behavior, like from Pirate Bay, is illegal behavior. Not amount of justification changes that.
 
Re: AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ dat

I disagree with this ruling.

I am sick of the government running the private industry.

If AT&T wants to call something unlimited and then give less, then let the people figure it out and leave AT&T in droves...forcing them to do as they say are doing.

But forcing the government to give them fines often means their customers do not bother leaving them (as it is often too inconvenient) since they feel like the government will keep them in line.

This big brother crap is slowly destroying free enterprise.

We are talking about data speeds - not food or antibiotics. No one is going to die because it took longer for them to download a movie on Netflix.


LET THE BUYER BEWARE.

I can monitor my own download speeds/performance, I don't need the government budding in where they are not needed.

All this Big Brother monitoring does is make everyone lazy. Instead of actively monitoring the performance of their products/services, consumers are increasingly becoming more and more dependent on the government to do it for them and trusting that they are not in cahoots with the big corporations they claim to be keeping tabs on...that is potentially dangerous.

Do you really think the government is going to truly police any industry that is responsible for huge campaign contributions to their re-election campaigns?
 
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