T-Mobile quantifies which unlimited 4G LTE customers are in risk of getting throttled

T-Mobile has recently cleared up its policy toward the throttling of its unlimited 4G LTE subscribers. Those who use more than 21GB of data in a billing month can find their browsing speed throttled to as low as 1Mbps in situations where network traffic is congested. Previously, T-Mobile said that it would throttle the top 3% of unlimited 4G LTE data users when its pipeline was crowded.

But the truth is that T-Mobile hasn't changed its policy at all. It merely has quantified the amount of data use that would put customers in danger of being throttled. It is a lot easier to monitor how much data you've used in a month than it is to figure out if you are in the top 3% of the carrier's data users. As T-Mobile says, this threshold changes every quarter. For this quarter, usage of more than 21GB of data puts you in the top 3% of the operator's data users.

"On the rare occasion when a T-Mobile cell site is congested, the top 3% of our data users could see their data prioritized behind lower data users. A threshold is established every calendar quarter. For the current quarter, a user reaches that threshold when exceeding 21 GB in a month. By comparison AT&T has a 5 GB threshold and both AT&T and Verizon manage network capacity with top 5% of users."-T-Mobile

By stating that the policy is being done to manage its network's performance, T-Mobile is not considered to be breaking any net neutrality rules. The FCC allows the throttling to take place as long as it not done as a "business practice." On the other hand, Sprint ended the very same practice of throttling heavy data users using congested networks once the net neutrality rules were passed.

Phonearena