The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) slapped AT&T with a whopping $100 million fine, but the telecom operator is now urging the commission to reconsider.
The proposed $100 million penalty aims to punish AT&T for throttling the data speeds of subscribers who had unlimited plans. At the same time, this is the largest fine the FCC has ever proposed.
AT&T, for its part, is now asking the FCC to rethink the matter before proceeding with this proposal, arguing that it should not have to face such a fine because it did notify subscribers in due time.
"Although AT&T asserts that it has provided ample disclosures about these policies, we find that these disclosures do not cure AT&T's apparent violations of the Open Internet Transparency Rule," the FCC wrote back in June [pdf].
The commission further asserts that AT&T's practices did not offer consumers the information needed to make decisions regarding their broadband service, thus impeding market competition for such services.
"Consistent with the Commission's forfeiture guidelines, and based on the seriousness of AT&T's apparent violations, we propose a forfeiture of $100,000,000 and a set of requirements to bring AT&T into compliance with the Transparency Rule," the FCC stated.
In a new document filed with the agency, AT&T is asking the FCC to go over its ruling and cancel the proposal, The Hill reports. Moreover, the carrier argues that it should not face a fine larger than $16,000 and that the FCC has no basis for settling such a high proposed fine of $100 million.
AT&T's filing with the FCC further points out that its data throttling did not actually harm anyone.
"The Commission's findings that consumers and competition were harmed are devoid of factual support and wholly implausible," AT&T claimed in its filing. "Its 'moderate' forfeiture penalty of $100 million is plucked out of thin air, and the injunctive sanctions it proposes are beyond the Commission's authority."
According to AT&T, customers on the so-called unlimited data plans received notifications via text message, as well as an online disclosure, that they will have lower data speeds once they exceed a certain threshold of monthly data use.
The carrier not only believes it notified customers beforehand regarding this data throttling, but also that the statute of limitations has passed for these alleged violations. AT&T further mentioned similar practices from the other major U.S. carriers, such as Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, and said that the FCC's claims that AT&T violated the Transparency Rule is not even plausible.
A copy of AT&T's filing with the FCC is available [pdf] online.
It remains to be seen whether the FCC will backtrack on its ruling and ultimately decide not to go forward with its proposed fine, but AT&T is determined to fight it.
