T-Mobile defends data allowance cut

by Sarah Griffiths on 12 January 2011, 14:51

Tags: T-Mobile (NYSE:DT)

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Not a happy bunny?

T-Mobile has annoyed many of its customers by quietly announcing it will cap data usage at 500MB/month and has now defended its move on the basis that it will affect a ‘minority' of consumers.

HEXUS has received clarification from T-Mobile on a couple of points. Firstly, that current customers WILL be affected by the new cap and secondly that the cap will apply to customers irrespective of whether their contract gave them 1GB or 3GB/month of data before- that's an 80 percent cut for some customers.

The 500MB data cap will kick in from 1 February and T-Mobile has started to tell its customers about the changes to its Fair Usage Policies.

A T-Mobile spokesperson said: "These restrictions will affect both new and existing customers, and will ensure an improved quality of service for all of our mobile internet users."

The company tried to defend its move and said: "As the average mobile internet customer uses only 200MB of data each month, this will only affect a small minority of users, whom we have begun notifying."

T-Mobile's spokesperson said that the company will not charge customers extra for exceeding the data limit and people who do will still be able to access email and web but won't be able to download anything.

However, it seems that high-use customers who do a lot of downloading will lose out under the cap. T-Mobile said: "Customers who have a need for higher volumes of data will be encouraged to take up a separate mobile broadband plan.  

"We are confident that these changes will result in a better experience for all of our customers who use internet on their phone," the spokesperson added.

HEXUS also asked the T-Mobile why it has taken the unpopular decision to cap data when Everything Everywhere is promoting how much better things are for customers since Orange and T-Mobile joined up...but there is no news yet.

T-Mobile customers on various forums have been mulling over whether they can escape from their current contracts because of the changes and threats to contact Ofcom are common.

Ofcom told The Register that it is ‘examining' the situation.  Note- not ‘investigating'.  

It is expected that T-Mobile will issue advice about contracts in due course but probable that ‘material detriment' arguments will play a part in customer negotiations, with many people speculating that heavy users will possibly be the only consumers able to quit their contracts early because of the data cap changes.



HEXUS Forums :: 16 Comments

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At least OFCOM will sort it out by the Olympics :)

If they let people that exceed the limit escape then it isn't all that bad…
So everyone on a T-mobile contract with data should start downloading heavily now then?
isn't this the same limit that orange have on theirs?
Well i've still had no notification of a change in my terms, and funnily enough OFCOM rules stipulate 30 days notice - and how far away is Feb 1st?

It's looking very much like TMobile don't have a leg to stand on if you want to walk..
If anyone wants to leave their contract then yes definetly from now download all you can. Only by showing that you had high usage before the change came in can you use it as an excuse for leaving your contract later on.

its a joke really, new data hungry phones that service providers are happy to roll out but they cut the internet service by as much as 80%. All the big names are doing this now which is a shame. Its a leap backwards obviously. But why shouldnt our mobile internet be in as much of a mess as our broadband internet?

Seems we go backwards with everything technology related in this country. Profits first and screw the rest.