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Post by capncrunch on Oct 29, 2014 6:54:54 GMT -6
FTC is suing AT&T for throttling people for receiving "unlimited service". If a person is paying for unlimited service than that is what they should receive. Don't offer unlimited if you are going to put a stop or slow service down if you don't mean unlimited.
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Post by dive61364 on Oct 29, 2014 7:32:41 GMT -6
almost all wireless companies do this type of thing. its unlimited but they don't guarantee the speed at which you can download or upload.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2014 7:57:36 GMT -6
I think IV cellular is one of the few that doesnt...
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Post by seaturtle43 in hostile forum on Oct 29, 2014 8:32:41 GMT -6
Most all of the carriers throttle the speed of their unlimited plans. Many prepaids do as well. unlimited means you don't get cut off or charged extra after you use a certain amount of data has nothing to do with the speed.
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Post by toshiko on Oct 29, 2014 8:55:50 GMT -6
I think IV cellular is one of the few that doesnt... I have had no problems w/ IV cellular and the costumer service is awesome.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2014 11:58:40 GMT -6
Date: October 28, 2014 Time: 2:00 p.m. ET
Call-in lines, which are for media only, will open 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. Chairwoman Ramirez and FTC staff will be available to take questions from the media about the case.
The Federal Trade Commission filed a federal court complaint against AT&T Mobility, LLC, charging that the company has misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds, in some cases by nearly 90 percent.
The FTC’s complaint alleges that the company failed to adequately disclose to its customers on unlimited data plans that, if they reach a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T reduces – or “throttles” – their data speeds to the point that many common mobile phone applications – like web browsing, GPS navigation and watching streaming video – become difficult or nearly impossible to use.
“AT&T promised its customers ‘unlimited’ data, and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “The issue here is simple: ‘unlimited’ means unlimited.”
According to the FTC’s complaint, AT&T’s marketing materials emphasized the “unlimited” amount of data that would be available to consumers who signed up for its unlimited plans. The complaint alleges that, even as unlimited plan consumers renewed their contracts, the company still failed to inform them of the throttling program. When customers canceled their contracts after being throttled, AT&T charged those customers early termination fees, which typically amount to hundreds of dollars.
The FTC alleges that AT&T, despite its unequivocal promises of unlimited data, began throttling data speeds in 2011 for its unlimited data plan customers after they used as little as 2 gigabytes of data in a billing period. According to the complaint, the throttling program has been severe, often resulting in speed reductions of 80 to 90 percent for affected users. Thus far, according to the FTC, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times.
According to the FTC’s complaint, consumers in AT&T focus groups strongly objected to the idea of a throttling program and felt “unlimited should mean unlimited.” AT&T documents also showed that the company received thousands of complaints about the slow data speeds under the throttling program. Some consumers quoted the definition of the word “unlimited,” while others called AT&T’s throttling program a “bait and switch.” Many consumers also complained about the effect the throttling program had on their ability to use GPS navigation, watch streaming videos, listen to streaming music and browse the web.
The complaint charges that AT&T violated the FTC Act by changing the terms of customers’ unlimited data plans while those customers were still under contract, and by failing to adequately disclose the nature of the throttling program to consumers who renewed their unlimited data plans.
FTC staff worked closely on this matter with the staff of the Federal Communications Commission.
The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 5-0. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The case will be decided by the court.
The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 2,000 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s website provides free information on a variety of consumer topics. Like the FTC on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to press releases for the latest FTC news and resources.
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Post by seaturtle43 in hostile forum on Oct 29, 2014 12:07:05 GMT -6
Yeah the lack of disclosure is what has caused the problem for sure. I am shocked at how big the % of reduced speed is. That is definitely cheating customers. I get a reduction but that is terrible
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2014 13:01:48 GMT -6
Makes me wonder.
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Post by capncrunch on Oct 29, 2014 14:04:50 GMT -6
Companies, whether it is a cell phone, or rental cars, should hold up on what they say or be honest with customers paying for unlimited services. Without customers, there would be no businessess or services. If there is limitations, than state it upfront.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2014 8:45:54 GMT -6
For consumer cellular prices, look out below! John Shinal, Special for USA TODAY 9:03 a.m. EST February 10, 2014 FreedomPop Phone HTC 3 views
(Photo: FreedomPop) Story Highlights
There's a price war brewing among wireless carriers Shares of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are under pressure Upstart FreedomPop is taking on the big companies with its cheap smartphone plans
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SAN FRANCISCO — Mobile phone service in the U.S. looks headed down the same path as traditional land-line voice communication before it.
It's dropping in price, thanks to the Internet, and the fall is just now accelerating.
AT&T fired the loudest shot in the brewing price war last week when it slashed the cost of its family data plans, a move aimed at stealing high-end customers from rival Verizon.
The price cut came one month after No. 4 U.S. operator T-Mobile boldly offered to pay the hefty fees consumers usually pay when they switch carriers before the end of their contract.
Yet the biggest disruption to the consumer cellular market may come from below, thanks to a small Internet-based upstart with eye-popping prices and an aggressive business plan.
Los Angeles-based FreedomPop — which in October rolled out the novel combination of a low-end smartphone and free basic service for voice, text and data — has now upped the ante on its giant rivals.
Starting this month, it's also offering unlimited voice and text plans for just $4.58 a month, a small fraction of what larger carriers charge.
What's more, FreedomPop is now offering the service on higher-end phones. john shinal
John Shinal, technology columnist for USA TODAY.(Photo: USA TODAY)
"We're declaring war on an industry that's taken advantage of consumers for too long," FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols says.
The company's service takes advantage of the fact that most mobile calls today travel over the Internet for at least part of their journey between callers.
Breaking voice calls into packets of data and sending them alongside other digital traffic over the big carriers' Internet-switch networks has dramatically lowered the operator's costs.
But so far at least, the savings have been reaped mostly by the wireless giants rather than consumers.
That's why the fight between the two largest U.S. cellular carriers unnerved telecom investors, who sold off their shares and those of T-Mobile and No. 3 operator Sprint after AT&T's price cut.
An average plan that includes 500 MB of data costs $85 a month in the U.S., compared with $8.80 in the U.K. and $24.10 in China, according to the International Telecom Union.
Yet as we told you here in October, FreedomPop is offering a comparable plan for free, and has now cut the cost of a more-robust plan targeted at higher-end smartphone users by more than half.
I've been testing the service, which runs over Sprint's network for the last two weeks on a Samsung Galaxy 2 phone, alongside two other phones: an iPhone 3G running on AT&T's network and an iPhone 4S from Sprint.
I carried all three around, checking service strength and placing various calls from my home office in San Francisco and while traveling the Bay Area by car and subway.
FreedomPop's service requires a strong 3G connection to work properly, and even in places where I was connected to Sprint's 4G LTE network and Wi-Fi, the signal was a bit weaker than AT&T's.
For example, FreedomPop had no luck grabbing a signal while I was riding underground on public transit trains, whereas I do get service on my iPhone.
The upstart service also dropped a call to a wireline phone number on the East Coast of the U.S. while I was sitting at my desk, something that almost never happens on AT&T's network.
Still, for the majority of the calls I made during the business day, most around the Bay Area, the service worked fine.
So while I can't recommend it right now for heavy business users or helicopter moms who demand Grade A service 100% of the time, it's an adequate phone and service package for most consumers.
And at the price FreedomPop is offering, the cost savings versus the large carrier plans is as much as 85%.
To offer the service so cheaply, FreedomPop buys its smartphones at auctions in warehouses and on shipyard docks. The startup is on track to sign up more than 200,000 customers by the end of this quarter, Stokols told me last month.
"The big carriers know that the threat is coming, but they're more worried about each other right now," said Stokols, a former executive with British Telecom.
In the meantime, FreedomPop will be trying to revolutionize cellular pricing from below, one user at a time.
John Shinal has covered tech and financial markets for 15 years at Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the San Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones Marketwatch, Wall Street Journal Digital Network and others. Follow him on Twitter: @johnshinal. 324 CONNECT 91 TWEET 11 LINKEDIN 14 COMMENTEMAILMORE USA NOW Nurse Kaci Hickox: 'No way I would give you Ebola' Oct 30, 2014 Alibaba stock bulls, bears load up before earnings Recommended for you Alibaba stock bulls, bears load up before earnings ✖
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Post by dumdave on Oct 30, 2014 9:23:33 GMT -6
bump
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Post by dumdave on Oct 30, 2014 10:02:05 GMT -6
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Post by capncrunch on Nov 3, 2014 13:01:03 GMT -6
Should cell phones be banned in schools?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2014 13:33:06 GMT -6
Yes. I do think cell phones should be banned from schools. The students are there to receive an education. The teachers have a job in teaching the students. Without having students, teachers would not have jobs. By being on the cell phones is rude. If the students are snap chatting, during class, they are not paying attention to the teacher. If the teacher is on the phone, whether texting or talking, they are not doing what they are getting paid to do.
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Post by dog on Nov 3, 2014 14:20:43 GMT -6
It's an interesting point. I think there are times when rental car companies had limits to their 'unlimited miles' too. Last two cars I rented I put on 3800 miles in 10 days and 3200 miles in 8 days. The only restriction I can remember was it had to be in the US. Couldn't go to Canada or Mexico. First one was with Hertz who used to be at Loris Mailbox, and the 2nd was thru Enterprise at the Bill Walsh Superstore in Ottawa.
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