AT&T Throttling Will Drastically Slow Down Your Connection [Video]

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Posted January 17, 2012 at 6:02pm by Shalom Levytam

AT&T is throttling the top five percent of data users but just how much could your connection be limited?

AppAdvice has posted a new video that shows the speeds of a throttled device are drastically reduced.

Take a look below...

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Comments (22)

Comments are closed for this article.

PReaper - January 19, 2012 at 11:50pm

That's crap! They gotta do something about the networks in the US.. I max my iPhone 4s 3G speed capacity 24/7 in Sweden.. Not trying to talk you guys down, just saying that AT&T is way behind in the cellular network business.. With the prices they charge you guys your phone should be able to perform amazing.

Notch - January 18, 2012 at 9:19pm

Class action lawsuit! Why such a perverted business model? We should pay by the byte, flat rate for most. The more you use, the less you pay per byte, the more you pay per month.

Maded - January 18, 2012 at 8:19pm

Top 5% isn't referring to nationwide usage, btw. It's referring to the top 5% of usage at a particular cell site. So if you live in a rural area serviced by only one cell site and 95% of the users in your area are under 2 Gb then congratulations you're in the top 5%.

AJ - January 24, 2012 at 4:43pm

I'm one of those "greedy grandfathered unlimited" users and I don't consider myself a bandwidth abuser. I have no internet or open wifi where I currently live and must rely on 3G for any access to the outside world. I wish I had broadband. I now pass 10 gigs a month and the throttling makes it impossible to do anything. This is NOT unlimited and it's AT&T's negligence that is blame.

sandra - January 27, 2012 at 4:44pm

Just got to ask is it my fault that At&t force me to get on the unlimited data planwhen i purchased the second generation iphone and i was allowed to stay on it each and every time i wanted a new phone.If they had wanted me change my plan id have stayed with my old iphone until it fell a part or purchased an unlocked on online.Not my problem att infastructure wasnt prepared for the popularity of the iphone 4s.Or all the other smartphones being sold before At&t can handle all the services these phones offer.If. At&t can't handle these smart phones and all that they do maybe should hold off marketing and selling them until they can.Or stop offering apps that burn through data when used such as Netflix,Ebay,Pandora.Just a thought.

Gary Hall - January 30, 2012 at 10:54pm

That's a load of crap. Last month AT&T throttled me at 2.1 gb This month they throttled me at 1.7 gb $30.00 for 1.7 my phone is useless after they throttle.

BigMama! - January 18, 2012 at 6:19am

I hope words get out where AT&T start losing customer so they pay for their trickery. They promised unlimited data just to do a bait and switch to this!

Adcpolo - January 18, 2012 at 5:23am

Switching to what people? There r not many choices out there...

Rizob - January 18, 2012 at 4:14am

Does anyone have sprint I'm thinking of switching to their unlimited plan?

xjpro - January 18, 2012 at 4:29am

Beware, as you have seen, it looks like the word "unlimited" has a different meaning for our phone and ISP companies!

Khan - January 18, 2012 at 4:45am

Sprint throttle their top 1%, so they are not truly unlimited anymore. They are also one of the slowest network.

budsal - January 18, 2012 at 3:32am

I was at my local AT&T shop today. The guy behind the counter told me that grandfather plans get throttled at 2gb. He said forget about the top 5% thing.

xjpro - January 17, 2012 at 10:06pm

The same thing happened to me. I live overseas and my isp is orange, which sent me the same message like two weeks ago. I went to their offices and was told that even though my plan is "unlimited" is in regards of the amounts of GB's that I can use during my invoicing period, after I use 5gb, my speed is limited to 256kbps (wtf) I choose an unlimited plan, that as the word says, it should be "unlimited" but this damn crooks always manage to take advantage of their customers. If some lawyer is around, isn't the isp plausible for a demand for this fraud?

nir-hus - January 17, 2012 at 8:32pm

Interesting how unlimited translates to a limited plan. I will consider switching from AT&T.

d40bf91 - January 17, 2012 at 7:39pm

Look I called AT&T and asked wtf was that msge about, I told them that I have an UNLIMITED plan. They told me not to worry about it and to ignore the message. He told me that it doesn't effect unlimited users. But a day later I got the message that I reached the 5% and what do u know, I get .10 gb/sec...

Mike - January 17, 2012 at 7:24pm

I don't believe at&t's BS about 5%. This is obviously NOT TRUE. They are throttling everyone over 2GB of data usage, unless you're on the 4Gb plan. This is how they going to get customers to switch to the higher plan. At&t has always been pushing the 4Gb plan. Each rep was held accountable for selling a certain % of 4Gb plans. I guess they found a better way to rip off customers now. Besides they won't have to pay reps c omission to sell it. Customer will be calling and switching just like that. Good marketing strategy isn't it?

yep yep - January 17, 2012 at 7:15pm

Well after reaching 2gb on my "unlimited" plan I got a text saying that I have reached the top 5%. After calling to argue, concidering that At&T sells data plans up to 4gb i argued that there is no way i can be in top 5% if the company it self sells 4gb plans and im sure tehre are plenty of people who have pay for that much data. As far as im concerned At&T should provide some prove that people actualy are in top 5% cause there is no way that over 2gb places me in that category if they self 4gb plans themselfs (knowing that people will buy it). If im over 4gb then sure im in to 5% but if im only at 2gb then AT&t is full of crap.

Tony - January 17, 2012 at 7:08pm

I got throttled after 4gs of use, my download speed now is 0.1 gb/sec :(

Goodfella - January 17, 2012 at 7:23pm

Same here no more than 0.3 and I only use 2.1gb of data so far

Catsrules - January 17, 2012 at 6:50pm

I got that damn text and I only used barely 2GB for that month. we just need to get ever one with an unlimited plan to just use crazy amounts of data, raise that 5% mark. lol

apu - January 17, 2012 at 7:06pm

i got that same message last month at 2.08GB on my unlimted plan. after i got that message my data wouldnt work at all. had to reset networking settings on my phone for my data to start working again. it also happened to me last night with the data not working, i was listening to pandora and it just all of sudden stopped working and then i couldnt use internets after that, again had to reset network settings to get my data back working. its almost as if they zapped my phone from not sending/receiving data, but phone/texts worked.

Meyer - January 17, 2012 at 6:32pm

Well, at&t sucks when it comes to data allowance. It will get worse as they fully rollout their LTE network. That's what uncontrolled monopoly leads to.

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