AT&T's LTE throttling is more rampant than previously thought

AT&T
AT&T is becoming synonymous with data throttling

There were reports in September that AT&T throttles "unlimited data" customers when its networks are particularly congested, but apparently congestion actually has nothing to do with it when it comes to LTE.

AT&T's 3G and non-LTE (that means 4G HSPA+ to AT&T) subscribers are slowed down at the 3GB mark when the networks are busy, but LTE users are throttled after 5GB in a billing cycle regardless of network traffic.

That's better than the policy AT&T once held of simply throttling unlimited users' data automatically as a rule, but still. Come on.

Ars Technica spoke with one AT&T subscriber who noticed his speeds slowing and confirmed the policy with the carrier, and a customer service representative reportedly told him there's nothing they can do about it.

AT&T's own support site confirms that this is the case for users with "legacy unlimited data plans," and it's not uncommon among other carriers, either - the T-Mobile plan I signed up for in November has severe throttling after 3GB, but at least they were upfront about it.

Hopefully the federal government's efforts to take AT&T to task for its "deceptive and unfair" policies has some lasting effects on this industry, as things appear to be getting worse, not better.

Michael Rougeau

Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.

Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.