AT&T Begins Warning High-Volume Data Users of Upcoming Throttling
In late July, AT&T announced that as of October 1st it would begin throttling data speeds for customers on unlimited data plans who registered in the top 5% of heaviest data users. While AT&T no longer offers unlimited data plans, customers who had signed up for such plans prior to their discontinuation, including many iPhone users, have been grandfathered in and allowed to keep their unlimited plans.

Reddit user "TheReverendZ" yesterday reported (via 9to5Mac) that he had received a text message from AT&T warning him that he had fallen into that top 5% group and encouraging him to use Wi-Fi to help avoid throttling of his data speeds. TheReverendZ notes that he typically uses 10-12 GB of data per month, as he does not have home Internet service, while "skelatwork" reports that he received a similar notice when he had passed approximately 11 GB of data for the month.
AT&T has noted that it will provide multiple warnings and a grace period before beginning to throttle data speeds, and it now appears that the carrier has begun the warning process. Customers subject to throttling will retain access to unlimited data but will see their speeds reduced until the start of the next billing cycle.
Popular Stories
As previously rumored, the next-generation iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will feature a unified volume button and a mute button, according to leaked CAD images shared in a video on the Chinese version of TikTok and posted to Twitter by ShrimpApplePro.
Instead of separate buttons for volume up and volume down, the iPhone 15 Pro models are expected to have a single elongated button for...
A first-generation iPhone still sealed inside its box sold for $54,904 at auction, which is more than $54,000 over the original $599 price tag of the device when it was released in 2007.
The original iPhone was put up for sale by RR Auction on behalf of a former Apple employee who purchased it back when it first came out. Back in February, an original, sealed iPhone sold for over $63,000,...
While year-over-year iPhone upgrades are not always groundbreaking, new features can begin to stack up over multiple generations. For example, the iPhone 15 Pro will be a notable upgrade for those who still have a three-year-old iPhone 12 Pro.
If you are still using an iPhone 12 Pro and are considering upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro when it launches later this year, we have put together a...
Apple's high-end iPhone models have started at $999 in the U.S. since they first launched back in 2017 with the iPhone X, but could this finally be the year that starting price sees an increase?
This week also saw some more rumors about Apple's upcoming headset and the company's explorations in the booming AI industry as well as the release of a new round of beta updates, so read on for all...
The iPhone 15 Pro Max will have the thinnest bezels of any smartphone, beating the record currently held by the Xiaomi 13. That's according to the leaker known as "Ice Universe," who has divulged accurate information about Apple's plans in the past.
Both iPhone 15 Pro models are expected to have thinner, curved bezels compared to the iPhone 14 Pro, potentially resulting in an Apple...
While the iPhone 15 lineup is around six months away, there have already been plenty of rumors about the devices. Many new features and changes are expected for the iPhone 15 Pro models in particular, including a titanium frame and more.
Below, we have recapped 11 features rumored for iPhone 15 Pro models that are not expected to be available on the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus:A17...
Apple continues to test iOS 16.4, which includes a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone. Below, we have recapped five new features coming with the software update, including new emoji, push notifications from websites, and more.
Apple says iOS 16.4 will be available in the spring, which begins today. In his newsletter this weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the update should ...
Top Rated Comments
So if everyone is downloading only 1kb per month, and someone downloads 2kb then they would be in the top 5%.
I wonder if they have a 'lower' limit?
Really.
I was under the (mistaken) impression that when one pays for unlimited access, they get unlimited access.
Effectively the guy using 10GB of data per month is throttling everybody else's service downward since there is only so much network pipe. And regardless of what AT&T does there will always be only so much network pipe. The more you increase bandwidth the more people will consume. So they need to throttle people who are over-using it and they clearly can't give any sort of minimum guarantees on bandwidth since there are so many variables.
Howerver, the problem with this is that it can't just be the top 5% of users. It needs to be two conditions:
1) You are in the top 5% of usage
2) Your network usage is greater than X GB per month (say 4 or 5 GB)
Why? Because if all these folks in the top 5% reduce their usage next month by 10%, they will likely STILL be in the top 5%. That's how percentages work. If everybody using AT&T only used 2GB of data per month on their unlimited then the person in the top 5% would be the person who used 2.01GB.
So AT&T's current policy will eventually fail if the top users seriously start dropping their usage because they will all come down together and therefore the net effect is to ask them to drop even further the next month.
I personally think that if you are using less usage than their current premium data plan (e.g.: 4GB) that they should never subject you to this throttling. Since effectively the "unlimited" plan's closest equivalent in the new structure is the 2GB + 2GB tethering plan (i.e.: the current top premium data plan).
So this is a good first step from AT&T, but it comes up short in the long run if it actually is effective in getting folks to reduce their usage.
Throttling sounds reasonable in this case.
Most people who have unlimited don't really need it anyway. It's one of those psychological things.