FCC proposes $100 million fine of AT&T

The FCC announced today a proposed $ 100 million fine of AT&T over allegations the carrier was improperly throttling data speeds for unlimited plan customers and in particular that the company failed to adequately disclose the throttling consumers may face. The plans in question were offered between 2007 and 2010 by AT&T. Although the carrier no longer offers unlimited data plans, subscribers who had such a plan could continue to renew them. The FCC contends AT&T falsely labeled plans subject to the company’s maximum bit rate policy as unlimited and failed to adequately inform customers of the maximum speeds they would have available.

As part of their announcement, the FCC revealed that they have received thousands of complaints related to this one issue. Their investigation showed the affected customers could number into the millions and the customers affected were typically impacted by the slower speeds for an average of 12 days each billing cycle. In addition to extensive period of time customers were impacted by the throttling, the FCC also claims those impacted saw their speeds slowed down even more than what typical subscribers experienced. The throttling was so bad that the FCC characterized the service as

“significantly impeding their ability to use common data applications such as GPS mapping or streaming video.”

In the words of the FCC, “unlimited means unlimited” and AT&T’s throttling deceived customers.

AT&T has responded to the announcement with the following statement,

“We will vigorously dispute the FCC’s assertions. The FCC has specifically identified this practice as a legitimate and reasonable way to manage network resources for the benefit of all customers, and has known for years that all of the major carriers use it. We have been fully transparent with our customers, providing notice in multiple ways and going well beyond the FCC’s disclosure requirements.”

Sources have noted that the FCC appears to be hanging their hat on the disclosure requirements of the 2010 Open Internet Transparency Rule as opposed to the actual act of throttling data speeds itself.

source: FCC
via: Engadget

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Raised in North Carolina, Jeff Causey is a chief financial officer and licensed CPA in Durham, North Carolina. Jeff has owned an HTC EVO, a Samsung Note II, and a Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1. He currently uses an LG G3 and a Nexus 7 (2013). Recently Jeff added Google Glass to his stable of tech gadgets. Unfortunately, his wife and kids have all drunk the Apple Kool-Aid and have i-devices. Life at home often includes demonstrations of the superiority of his Android based devices. In his free time, Jeff is active in his church, a local MINI Cooper car club, and his daughter’s soccer club. Jeff is married, has three kids, and a golden retriever.

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Source = talkandroid

Tags = $100, AT&T, Fine, million, proposes