Data dump

28 October 2014 By Reynolds Holding Follow @holdingren

One watchdog says the telecom giant sold “unlimited” data plans that were anything but. That may not please agencies reviewing the firm’s $67 bln DirecTV bid and rules on net neutrality and wireless spectrum. Of all companies, AT&T knows the downside of taking on Washington.

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Oct. 28 sued AT&T for allegedly misleading customers who used data plans the company called “unlimited” while reducing the customers’ internet speeds – sometimes by nearly 90 percent – after they used a certain amount of data.

AT&T called the allegations “baseless” and said the practice was needed to manage network resources.

“We have been completely transparent with customers since the very beginning,” said Wayne Watts, AT&T’s general counsel. “This program has affected only about 3 percent of our customers, and before any customer is affected, they are also notified by text message.”

More than 3.5 million customers with legacy unlimited data plans had their internet speeds slowed more than 25 million times by AT&T’s practice, which began in October 2011, the FTC said.

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