Throttling has been an issue for many consumers of various networks over the years, most notably AT&T with their completely unlimited data customers, an issue that was getting plenty of attention in the second half of 2014. More recently though, some T-Mobile customers have been experiencing what appears to be, at least in their eyes, a throttling of their unlimited 4G LTE data speeds. The experience of one single user has led to the creation of a Reddit thread which has since been filled up with comments from customers, employees and fans of the network, all discussing various points of opinion and personal experiences on the matter. The thread has been filled with so many comments that it has even garnered the attention of T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who has addressed the issue alongside a response to a question about throttling during T-Mobile’s recent first-quarter earnings call.
The problem for people it seems is that there has been a growing number of customers who have been experiencing a large amount of speed decrease on the network at certain times, with some customers seeing a dump in download speeds to as low as 0.2Mbps. The reason this seems to be becoming more of an issue is because those being affected who are high volume users aren’t able to have their data speeds reset till the next billing cycle. According to those commenting and involved in the discussion, these are people who are on the completely unlimited 4G LTE data plan. While this speed decrease could easily be confused with throttling, what it appears to potentially sum up to is little more than a congested network. While John Legere did address the issue to a point in the earnings call, there has yet to be an explanation of what exactly the issue is that’s causing these high volume users to be coming in contact with speeds that have been severely slowed down.
Thankfully though, Legere did mention that they are hearing people’s concerns and that they’re aware of all the comments and discussions happening on various forms of social media, and that they want to set up either a separate Reddit thread or a periscope discussion that will allow them to delve deep into the matter. What Legere and T-Mobile don’t want to do is give customers who are experiencing these problems a short answer. He also reiterated that T-Mobile does not throttle 4G LTE Unlimited customers, so what’s happening, albeit still unknown, appears to be another issue entirely. Hopefully sooner than later, T-Mobile will be able to provide users with an explanation and a resolution as to how to get this fixed. If you’re interested in hearing Leger’s response to the question about throttling on the earnings call, skip t0 the point where the video is about 30 minutes and 22 seconds in.