T-Mobile Removes G1 Data Cap, Sort Of

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

After much criticism when people managed to read the fine print on their 3G detail page, T-Mobile has backtracked on their throttling policy after a user reaches 1 GB of data usage. Originally, the sentence read:

If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less.

It was in bold, as shown above, but it was in the fine print at the bottom of the page. Well, T-Mobile quickly realized what a poor PR move it was, and quickly sent the following message to the New York Times:

Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.

We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers.

They removed it all right, but read the statement now (emphasis mine this time):

To provide the best network experience for all of our customers we may temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of customers who use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. Your data session, plan, or service may be suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users. Some devices require specific data plans; if you do not have the right plan for your device, you may not be able to use data services. Additional charges may apply. Domestic use only.

Interestingly, the original sentence was in bold and in the place of the current first sentence (which is no longer bolded; go figure). Obviously they don’t want to draw attention to it this time.

So while they removed the explicit cap that previously existed at 1 GB, what they’ve now done is created a policy very similar to Comcast’s new policy of throttling high usage users.

As I said previously: T-Mobile, meet Comcast. While certainly better than before, it still leaves them a loophole to throttle.