The Limitations On Your Unlimited Phone Plan

Should unrestricted data plans from the phone company have restrictions? Well, T-Mobile customer Trent Alvarez does not believe so. He remarks that nowhere in his agreement does T-Mobile USA reveal the limit on their unlimited data plans. Mr. Alvarez surpassed 10GB and T-Mobile then restricted his data throughput to 50Kbps.  Mr. Alzarez is claiming that T-Mobile is employing false advertising when marketing and advertising it’s unrestricted data plans and is filing a class action lawsuit in California.

Mr. Alvarez’s lawsuit says that immediately after his data throughput was limited his phone became “essentially useless for anything other than making or receiving phone calls and text messages”. This is what is referred to bandwidth throttling. Generally the data service provider boasts unrestricted usage but afterward, once a contract is signed, alludes to the fine print on the very last page of its sales brochure revealing that the data feed is really capped.

The brochure says, “Your data session may be slowed, suspended, terminated, or restricted if you use your service in a way that interferes with or impacts our network or ability to provide quality service to other users.”

So, are potential customers getting misled by phone companies boasts of unlimited data and phone use? The T-Mobile class action lawsuit thinks so. “Consumers are likely to be misled by T-Mobile’s promise of ‘unlimited’ data” the lawsuit says.

The litigation is trying to get an injunction against further deceptive advertising and marketing in addition to monetary restitution for any money buyers paid out on the company’s phone plans and smart phones.

If you remember there was a comparable lawsuit filed against Verizon a few years back in New York. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo alleged that the company had capped data usage despite the fact that they advertised unlimited plans. Eventually Verizon settled out of court for $1 million. It should be intriguing to observe how T-Mobile responds in this situation.