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AT&T slowing data speeds for some users

Throttling affects smartphone users on unlimited data plans.

This screen grab from Mike Trang's phone shows a warning message from AT&T advising he was in danger of having his data speeds throttled. Photo courtesy of Mike Trang

HONS This screen grab from Mike Trang's phone shows a warning message from AT&T advising he was in danger of having his data speeds throttled. Photo courtesy of Mike Trang

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer 7:53 PM Monday, February 13, 2012

Some AT&T customers with unlimited data plans may see their cellular data speeds slowed by roughly 99 percent under a new company policy that limits speeds for its heaviest consumers.

The practice, known as throttling, could mean that a mobile Web page that normally loaded in a second would take nearly two minutes instead.

AT&T has about 17 million customers with unlimited data plans that can be subject to throttling, representing just under half of its smartphone users. The company stopped signing up new customers for those plans in 2010, and warned last year that it would start slowing speeds for people who consume the most data.

The data speed reduction only affects AT&T smartphone customers with an unlimited data plan if their data usage falls within the top 5 percent of all data users nationwide, said Holly Hollingsworth, a company spokeswoman based in Columbus.

AT&T bases its actions on local market conditions including spectrum, network capacity and overall local data usage, so not all heavy data users would see their data speeds reduced.

“For example, in the most recent month, approximately one-half of one percent of our total smartphone customer base was affected by this policy,” Hollingsworth said.

AT&T hasn’t taken away its “unlimited” data plan, but instead has “narrowed the pipe,” said Seth Hummel, vice president of business development for HarborLink Network Ltd.

HarborLink is a Dayton-based provider of managed public Wi-Fi service in North America, including restaurant chains, retail establishments, convention centers and universities.

Throttling cellular data speeds is driving people to use Wi-Fi hotspots instead of mobile networks to access the Internet, which frees up cellphone bandwidth, Hummel said. “It’s a lot less expensive for people to use Wi-Fi than to go over a cell tower,” he said.

Hummel said 90 percent of the 6 million people who used HarborLink’s public Wi-Fi networks last year were smartphone users.

More than 1.5 billion mobile devices were sold worldwide in 2011, up 11 percent from 2010, according to International Data Corp. Smartphones showed the strongest growth with 491.4 million units shipped, up 61 percent from 2010.

AT&T invested more than $1.4 billion in its Ohio wireless and wireline networks from 2009 through 2011 to improve the company’s mobile broadband coverage and overall performance of its networks, Hollingsworth said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@Dayton DailyNews.com.

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