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Tethering has always been a sore subject with carriers. While T-Mobile has a plan that includes a limited amount of tethered data with its unlimited data plans, the company claims that a few users are bypassing that limit. Now, if a user tries to circumvent their tethered cap, T-Mobile will kick them down to a cheaper plan with limited high-speed data.
In a strongly-worded statement (because that’s just how T-Mobile CEO John Legere does things), the carrier announced that certain “network abusers” have been “stealing” data from T-Mobile. The company claims that a small number of users are tweaking their phones to bypass the limit on tethered data, instead disguising their tethered data usage as regular phone usage. The way T-Mobile’s unlimited data plans are structured, these users won’t be penalized no matter how much data they use on their phones. However, if they exceed 7GB of tethered data, their speeds will drop to the slower 3G network (though they won’t be cut off completely). The company says that in some cases, these particular people were downloading up to 2 terabytes of data.
T-Mobile says that the number of users who are breaking these rules is low. To start, they’re only going after 3,000 users (for comparison, T-Mobile has 59 million subscribers). They also won’t be charged extra. The users will first be warned about their usage, and then dropped to a lower capped plan if the behavior continues.
The move seems drastic, and it’s unclear if it will be applied more broadly in the future. For now, it seems safe to say that if you’re one of the affected users, you’ll know who you are. The current tethering cap for unlimited plans is 7GB of data. It would be pretty difficult to blow through that without knowing that you’re doing so.
Stopping Network Abusers: An Open Letter to T-Mobile Customers | T-Mobile via Android Police
Photo by Mike Mozart.
from Lifehacker http://ift.tt/1PGKNfb
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