Earlier this week, Sprint’s new CEO Marcelo Claure tried to take a swing at its bigger and/or faster competition by announcing a shared data plan that gives you a ton of data… on a network that’s currently so slow you’ll never get to use it all. Now Claure and company are trying again, offering an unlimited data plan that’s cheaper than the competition but probably won’t win over savvy data devourers. [More]
unlimited data plans
Straight Talk Users Sue Walmart And TracFone Over Throttling Of Unlimited Data Plans
By 7.30.13
Once again, a lawsuit calls into question the definition of “unlimited” when it refers to smartphone data plans. This time, the plaintiff claims that Straight Talk Wireless (a partnership between TracFone and Walmart) is effectively putting monthly data caps in place by throttling data speeds for users once they use a certain amount of data. Furthermore, alleges the complaint, users aren’t being told about the throttling until it’s too late. [More]
T-Mobile Has A $30 Unlimited Data Plan For People Who Aren’t Very Chatty, But Can Current Customers Get It?
By 6.7.13
A growing number of smartphone users — especially younger folks — almost never use the “phone” part of their wireless device, but many of them have monthly plans that include a ton of voice minutes they will never exhaust. If that describes your phone behavior, you might want to look into a bottom-dollar prepaid option being offered by T-Mobile. [More]
T-Mobile Figures Heck, Why Not Start Offering An Unlimited Data Plan? We're #4 Anyway
By 8.22.12
After languishing in fourth place among large U.S. mobile carriers for so long, T-Mobile is starting to feel the heat from its smaller rivals and the pressure to actually try to compete with the big boys. So it’s picking itself up by its bootstraps and saying, “Ya know what, America? Here’s an unlimited data plan.” We see what you’re doing here, T-Mobile. [More]
If ‘Share Everything’ Is The Future Of Mobile Plans, Then Count Me Out
By 6.29.12
Terry currently has a Nexus 4G from Verizon which is less than a year old. But he’s already looking to the future of mobile plans, and for longtime Verizon customers like him, that means a choice. He can pay full retail price for his next phone, or surrender his beloved unlimited data plan and switch to one of Verizon’s new “share everything” plans. He doesn’t like either option, and will have to leave Verizon. [More]
Verizon Insists I Had Data Cap Put On My Plan Because "Customers Do Weird Things"
By 5.23.12
With Verizon Wireless set to slaughter grandfathered unlimited data plans — at least for those who don’t want to pay full price for their phones — some VZW customers are already being driven against their will into capped data plans by Big Red. [More]
Verizon: If You Want Your Unlimited Data Plan, You'll Have To Pay Full Price For Your Next Phone
By 5.18.12
After a bit of hemming and hawing on the topic, Verizon Wireless has finally released some concrete info on its plan to kill off grandfathered unlimited data plans as it moves customers from 3G to 4G LTE service. [More]
AT&T CEO Regrets He Ever Offered Unlimited Data To You Ungrateful Punks In The First Place
By 5.7.12
A lot of things keep AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson up at night. If he has enough hair gel to get through the week… Putting down the pesky rebels led by that Luke kid from Tatooine. But mostly it’s about how third-party messaging systems are taking money out of his company’s coffers and how he never foresaw that people might actually want to use smartphones for things other than checking e-mail. [More]
AT&T Writes Check To Victor In Small Claims Court Suit
By 3.19.12
Even though AT&T had seemed quite intent on either appealing or coming to a different settlement with the California man who won a small claims court lawsuit against the company for throttling his so-called unlimited data plan, it now looks like the Death Star forces have retreated from this battle. [More]
AT&T Sets Definite 3GB/5GB Throttling Thresholds For Smartphone Users With Unlimited Plans
By 3.1.12
Following the public backlash against AT&T for its decision to throttle data speeds for some customers with “unlimited” data plans, the company has now decided to set actual hard, well… limits, on how much data a subscriber can use in a month before being throttled. [More]
AT&T Starts Warning Potential Throttle-ees
By 10.3.11
AT&T customers have known for months that the cell phone provider would start throttling the top 5 percent of data users on unlimited plans, and now the prospect has come closer to reality. AT&T has been sending text messages to data hogs warning them that their service could soon be slowed and advising them to escape the punishment by using WiFi more often. [More]
AT&T Confirms Plan To Throttle Top 5% Of Smartphone Data Hogs
By 7.29.11
Earlier today, rumors were circulating that AT&T would begin throttling the data speeds of users who went over a certain usage threshold. Now, the company has confirmed these reports, though it does not give specifics on what line a user has to cross before their data starts going at a snail’s pace. [More]
