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User successfully sues AT&T for data throttling.

poofyhairguy

poofyhairguy

Lifer
When AT&T started slowing down the data service for his iPhone, Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed truck driver and student, took the country's largest telecommunications company to small claims court. And won.

His award: $850.

Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel found in favor of Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Valley on Friday, saying it wasn't fair for the company to purposely slow down his iPhone, when it had sold him an "unlimited data" plan.
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http://news.yahoo.com/judge-awards-iphone-user-850-throttling-case-195042925.html

Looks like the grandfathering of unlimited data will end soon.
 
awesome! I hope this starts tidal wave of copycat cases all over the country. Not just for AT&T but for all carriers.
 
Excellent, I hope ATT gets reamed hard for this. Not that they are the only ones doing it, but their throttling is the most extreme from what I hear. I pray that I never will face it. And hopefully this is a step in that direction.
 
KLin said:
Precedent has been set, say goodbye to the unlimited data plan.
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Everyone actually already said goodbye to it when AT&T started throttling users. I honestly wish the government would go after the carriers for such blatantly false and misleading advertising.
 
I think that is what is starting to happen. All it takes is the first case to get the ball rolling. The judge must of bought an Iphone recently.
 
poofyhairguy said:
I live in a place that is not friendly to consumer interests by culture. I don't think I would have the same success in West Texas he got in Cali.
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Texas?
AT&T is headquartered in Texas.
There's no doubt that they've paid off your state regulators and judges.
 
The issue is that they sold him an unlimited plan. All they have to do is change the terms of people grandfathered into unlimited plans to allow throttling when they renew their contracts, or just not grandfather them into unlimited at all.

I have no problem with throttling heavy users but it's not right for them to unilaterally change contracts even if they have some general clause in there about network management.
 
This is a perfect example of winning a battle, but ultimately losing the war.

"Unlimited" plans will now simply go away/be phased out.

Way to go :thumbsup:

(I guess the positive side-effect may be that the carriers will have to at least think about being more up-front about what their plans are, but I doubt they will.)

MotionMan
 
MotionMan said:
This is a perfect example of winning a battle, but ultimately losing the war.

"Unlimited" plans will now simply go away/be phased out.

Way to go :thumbsup:

(I guess the positive side-effect may be that the carriers will have to at least think about being more up-front about what their plans are, but I doubt they will.)

MotionMan
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if they are phased out, there's always the chance that a sprint or a t-mobile will see the opportunity for a competitive advantage and offer true unlimited once more. unlikely, but possible.
 
vshah said:
if they are phased out, there's always the chance that a sprint or a t-mobile will see the opportunity for a competitive advantage and offer true unlimited once more. unlikely, but possible.
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Yeah, I keep wishing for a pony, too.

MotionMan
 
MotionMan said:
This is a perfect example of winning a battle, but ultimately losing the war.

"Unlimited" plans will now simply go away/be phased out.

Way to go :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I think that is a good thing.

My only problem with non-unlimited plans is the bar is two low. 2 or 3 gigs is not really enough. Hell, the line should be set at 5 or 6 gigs a month.

Right now companies don't face a backlash about those low tiers because the customers who use the most data are probably mostly on unlimited plans (as they cared enough about mobile tech to sign up when plans were unlimited).

If the unlimited went away and the high-use customers were forced onto the current tiers there would be a huge backlash from those who have overages. Either that opens up the market for a competitor of the big two, or it forces them to put the line at around the 6 gig mark for old unlimited customers.

Unlimited is dead no matter what. I would rather it die completely and be replaced with something reasonable rather than continue to have pretend "unlimited" service where the only other option is a ridiculous tiered plan...
 
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