Over 190,000 AT&T customers have filed official complaints regarding unlimited data plans that they say were throttled up to 90 percent in many cases, according to documents filed by the Federal Trade Commission.
Despite reports from an AT&T focus group that indicated customers would express discontent with the throttling, the wireless carrier allegedly capped data speeds anyhow, according to the complaint the FTC filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
"[A]s we'd expect, the reaction to [a proposed data throttling program] was negative; consumers felt 'unlimited' should mean unlimited," stated the focus group's report.
Participants in the focus groups came to the consensus that the data throttling was "clearly unfair." However, researchers indicated the participants should curtail their feedback, telling them that saying "less is more" and to avoid "saying too much."
Wayne Watts, AT&T general counsel, deemed the FTC's complaint as unjustified, asserting AT&T was provisioning its network to provide all of its customers with the best service it could deliver.
"The FTC's allegations are baseless and have nothing to do with the substance of our network management program," stated Watts. "It's baffling as to why the FTC would choose to take this action against a company that, like all major wireless providers, manages its network resources to provide the best possible service to all customers, and does it in a way that is fully transparent and consistent with the law and our contracts."
The FTC alleges AT&T began throttling customers after they consumed more than 2 GB of data in a billing cycle. The practice has been happening as far back as 2011, according to the FTC's complaint.
There were two versions of AT&T's throttling campaign, the first a touch more aggressive than the second.
The FTC says 3G customers were throttled between 80 percent and 90 percent under the first campaign and between 60 percent and 85 percent under its revision. LTE customers were throttled between 85 percent and 95 percent under the first version of the campaign and between 90 percent and 95 percent under the revised version of the alleged throttling initiative.
"AT&T promised its customers 'unlimited' data, and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. "The issue here is simple: 'unlimited' means unlimited.' "
The FTC says it goes after cases of consumer abuses that appear to be in the interest of the general public. Right now, the FTC is waging war on another front as it seeks damages from Amazon over its alleged reckless policy regarding in-app purchases.
