UPDATE: (AT&T has confirmed plans to throttle speeds of top 5% of data users with unlimited plans).

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Even though AT&T has yet to walk down the aisle with T-Mobile, the bigger company might already be taking some lessons from its bride-to-be. A new report claims that AT&T will soon begin using T-Mobile’s definition of “unlimited” data access and start throttling back data speeds once customers reach a certain threshold.

From 9to5mac.com, which reports that the change could start in October:

The heaviest users will see significant speed decreases for one billing cycle once they go over a threshold of data (we’re guessing 2-4GB?). These heavy users will still be able to access the network, but at a much slower speed. At the start of the next billing cycle, their speeds will return to normal. We don’t have numbers for AT&T’s throttle speeds but Virgin takes you down to 256Kb/s once you’ve reached their 2.5GB limit (not too bad actually – sometimes we’re happy to get 256kbs). Interestingly, Virgin’s throttle also will also be implemented in the first week of October which may indicate that they’ll be carrying a certain high profile mobile device as well.

Last week, we asked you if throttled data plans still counted as “unlimited,” and an overwhelming majority of you said no.

AT&T to implement data throttling in early October, just in time for iPhone 5 [9to5mac.com]

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