AT&T is negotiating a fix with the FTC over a deceptive data complaint from around four years ago, which cited that AT&T was charging customers for certain speeds for its unlimited data plan but decreasing the speeds for a number of customers that had been consuming a larger quantity of data within the month period of each cycle of their wireless service. Though the U.S.’ second-largest wireless carrier is now in talks with the Federal Trade Commission to come to a mutual agreement for a resolution to this complaint, there’s so far been no mention of what a potential resolution would be or how long it might take before a resolution is delivered.
The lawsuit against AT&T for this complaint had originally been thrown out, but was then brought back up earlier this year by a San Francisco Appeals court. Instead of trying to bring the reinstated lawsuit to the Supreme Court for a review AT&T instead has chosen to work with the FTC to hopefully resolve any issues that the FTC had with the way AT&T was charging for the plan, which is more likely to lead to a desired outcome on both sides if the two entities are working together at this point.
Though the beginning of this complaint started as far back as 2014 when it first surfaced, it just goes to show how long issues like this can take to reach a resolution and how long they can persist, meaning there’s no quick fix for things that could have potentially affected millions of subscribers on one of the largest wireless carriers in the U.S., especially at a time when “Unlimited Data” was a big selling point for more than just AT&T as a way to entice customers. FTC issues aside, AT&T recently confirmed that it was still considering a $15 a month streaming service, but that it would largely depend on it being able to close the deal with Time Warner.