AT&T Sends Throttling Warning To Heavy Data Users

Posted 10/03/2011 at 11:04am | by Brad Chacos

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Hey, remember how AT&T was the first telco to do away with unlimited data? Now, the best Ma Bell customers can do is plop down $25 for a 2GB plan, then another $10 for each additional GB of overage. It can get pricey for power users, but not for much longer; AT&T plans placing the muzzle on the top 5 percent of bandwidth hogs by throttling their connection sometime soon. The company began sending out text messages warning as much to its heaviest users today.

According to Wired, the SMS reads as follows: “Your data use this month places you in the top 5% of users. Use Wi-Fi to help avoid reduced speeds. Visit att.com/dataplans or call 8663447584.” There’s no information about when any throttling would actually take effect. While the suggestion to tap into Wi-Fi networks is probably a good idea for someone who is downloading enough data to be in the top 5 percent of users – and paying $10 a gig for the privilege – several users have already said they don’t like the idea of being throttled for data they are paying for. What’s your take on the situation, Maximum PC readers?