AT&T is penalizing users with large amounts of streaming data every month.
July 30, 2011- The heaviest users of data on the AT&T unlimited wireless plans will have the browsing speeds reduced starting October 1st due to the huge network congestion and increased data usage.
This came as a great inconvenience to those that stream large amounts of music and video each day, send large files, use remote webcam apps or play online games on their wireless network.
The top five percent that will be affected are currently using on average 12 times the amount of data of all other customers that have smartphones.
Users will be metered each month and once they reach a particular threshold during their billing cycle that makes them fall in the top 5% of usage users then their speed will be reduced.
AT&T was quick to stress that this should not affect the majority of users on the unlimited plans or the tiered plans just those that use such a tremendous amount daily.
The key is not how much you use the device it is what you use it for. You are able to send and receive thousands of texts and emails, surf the net, and watch many hours of video each month and still not reach that top five percent.
A message will go out to users as they approach the limit and anyone that reaches the limit or plateau of top 5% will experience the changes in speeds in the following cycle.
