Sprint isn’t really known for throttling their users, that’s more AT&T and T-Mobile. But recently, Sprint had begun periodically throttling their users if they were on a busy tower, and using a lot of data. This was to help keep a great experience for all of their users. Which is understandable to an extent. But when you are paying for unlimited data, you should be getting unlimited data, right?
On Friday, Sprint halted their throttling of their customers. And that was due to the new Net Neutrality rules being put into place. Unlike previous attempts by the FCC to regulate internet traffic, these new rules include wireless carriers like Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. So this means they fall under the same pre-tense as the ISP’s like Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, AT&T and Verizon. Sprint did say, however, it believes its policy would have been fine under the new rules. But decided to drop it just in case.
“Sprint doesn’t expect users to notice any significant difference in their services now that we no longer engage in the process,” a Sprint spokesman stated.
This change came just days before the FCC had announced it was fining AT&T $100 Million for throttling their unlimited data users. While AT&T is being fined a pretty hefty sum, it’s unlikely that their customers will see any of that cash, however. The commission stated that AT&T sold unlimited data plans then later started throttling users once they hit 5GB in a billing cycle. Which is false advertising according to the FCC.
AT&T and Verizon did stop offering unlimited data plans a few years ago, but there are still some users lucky enough to have them. Verizon had started throttling some of their unlimited data plan users, but were forced to stop by the FCC. T-Mobile on the other hand only throttle their customers in “extreme circumstances” and that’s for network management. So that everyone will have the same experience on T-Mobile’s network.
So it looks like throttling should be going away. However, it appears that the throttling T-Mobile does on their non-unlimited plans aren’t in question. So if you don’t have unlimited, you might still get throttled.