T-Mobile CEO Angry With People Who 'Steal' From Carrier's 'Unlimited' Data Plans
T-Mobile CEO John Legere made it known today in a blog post that the company will no longer tolerate those who "abuse" and "steal from" T-Mobile's "unlimited data" plans.
How can anyone steal data when it's supposed to be unlimited, you may ask? The core issue here is that unlimited data isn't exactly unlimited, whether we're talking about T-Mobile or some other carrier that promises the same thing.
In reality, companies have certain unspecified thresholds in their minds, and when they're passed by some customers, the action is then qualified as an "abuse" or "stealing," in a rather non-transparent way. The companies never put a number on how much is "enough" but started banning wireless users anyway because they passed the secret limit in their unlimited data plans.
However, carriers don't take the only action that can truly stop these abuses, which is ending the "unlimited" data plans that never were, and giving customers exactly as much as they think their networks will handle, whether that's 2 GB, 10 GB or 100 GB.
The only problem with this is that "unlimited" sounds better than "unlimited, sort of, to a point" in advertising campaigns.
The second issue in this story is that wireless carriers, including T-Mobile, like to consider tethered data as different from regular mobile data. In its "unlimited data plan," T-Mobile includes 7 GB of "free" tethering data at regular high speeds, but after that, the data transfer speeds are lowered significantly.
In other words, you may watch Netflix non-stop on your phone the whole month, but you can only watch 7 GB's worth (a few movies) when the phone is tethered to your laptop. At least that's how it's supposed to work in theory. In practice, T-Mobile will likely also penalize those who pass the 21 GB "regular speed limit" from its unlimited data plan for mobile.
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Legere said that there are over 3,000 individuals who currently qualify as "thieves," "abusers" and even "hackers" of this tethering data, because they are using apps that hide their tethering activity. That allows them to continue to use tethering data at regular speeds, even after the allotted 7 GB has been used.
However, this sort of thing likely wouldn't be possible if T-Mobile and other carriers were more transparent and direct with their real limits for mobile data usage instead of only pretending the data is unlimited and then punishing users for using "too much" of that data.
T-Mobile's CEO said the company will begin going after the abusers, starting today.
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
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dragonjujo Sounds like someone is angry over the fact they can't use their phone service provider as an Internet service provider.Reply -
tigermyth Total garbage article. He isn't talking about normal data. He is talking about limits on tethering and people who abuse tethering allowing upwards of 2,000GB per month.Reply
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thehritzinator According to their statement on Twitter, I believe, they said people are using up to 2 TERABYTES of data a month. This isn't "just going passed the data caps", they are going against the ToS and manipulating the code to use for tethering, and they MUST be tethering and letting multiple people use their network. What could ONE person use 2TB of data A MONTH for?Reply
The point T-Mobile is making is that when you have unlimited data, you have to follow the ToS. 21GB is basically unreachable on a mobile connection, with how readily available wi-fi is EVERYWHERE.
TL;DR - Get an ISP for your PC, don't try to use your MOBILE network for it
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WRXSTIGuy Thieves, abusers, hackers... that is a lot of name calling for people who pay for a service that is advertised as being "unlimited". I actually think that people who are using the service to their full advantage that they are paying actually intelligent and smart people. There is nothing wrong in trying to save money. It is T-Mobile that is in the wrong - selling an unlimited service that is not actually unlimited.Reply -
Larry Litmanen When i got my first smartphone i got unlimited data and i regularly used 5GB-6GB a month. When my contract run out and i got a new phone the unlimited plan was discontinued and i had to use a 2 GB plan.Reply
When faced with a limit i made sure i used Wi-Fi whenever i could, i found out that my cable provider offered thousands of free WiFi spots and that i could walk home from the train and actually use their WiFi all the way until i reach my home.
When faced with a limit people start acting differently, they make sure they never cross their limit. -
Larry Litmanen ReplyWhen i got my first smartphone i got unlimited data and i regularly used 5GB-6GB a month. When my contract run out and i got a new phone the unlimited plan was discontinued and i had to use a 2 GB plan.
When faced with a limit i made sure i used Wi-Fi whenever i could, i found out that my cable provider offered thousands of free WiFi spots and that i could walk home from the train and actually use their WiFi all the way until i reach my home.
When faced with a limit people start acting differently, they make sure they never cross their limit.
I should have added that i never once crossed the 2GB limit. -
floppyedonkey ReplyWhen i got my first smartphone i got unlimited data and i regularly used 5GB-6GB a month. When my contract run out and i got a new phone the unlimited plan was discontinued and i had to use a 2 GB plan.
When faced with a limit i made sure i used Wi-Fi whenever i could, i found out that my cable provider offered thousands of free WiFi spots and that i could walk home from the train and actually use their WiFi all the way until i reach my home.
When faced with a limit people start acting differently, they make sure they never cross their limit.
I should have added that i never once crossed the 2GB limit.
Cookie to u mr limitied, point is unlimited plans need to change their name. -
scolaner ReplyTotal garbage article. He isn't talking about normal data. He is talking about limits on tethering and people who abuse tethering allowing upwards of 2,000GB per month.
But you see the issue, don't you? People pay for an unlimited plan. The phones can tether. People tether their phones to their laptops to get secure Internet access. And they use it heavily.
And then they're stealing? -
robert27 I don't comment on many articles, but this one needs to be flagged as op-ed. Lucian Armasu is your edited for language sore or something? There are real limits to smartphone mobile hotspot usage in the rate plan. This step is taken against those people who circumvent these limits. As for the 21GB limit for high speed consumption, this only applies to people who are connected to a congested cell tower.Reply