F.C.C. charged $100 AT&T; for slowing data speed

F.C.C stands for The Federal Communication Commission has decided to fine AT&T; Mobility $100 million. An objection as been raised against the company that it seduced millions of wireless consumers by offering with unlimited data plans which have been slow down without providing enough information to the customers.



According to the agency’s information, the company reduced the data speed what affected users ability to do things like use GPS mapping services or stream video after being used a certain amount of data by the customers.



The agency said, by controlling down the speed of service without revealing the matter to users, AT&T; violated a 2010 rule. This is first time the agency has charged against a company for violating that very rule and the proposed fine is the largest figure in its history.



According to Tom Wheeler, the Democratic chairman of the F.C.C., “Customers possess to have what they pay for.” He also added,- “Broadband providers must be upfront and transparent about the services they provide.”



It has been come from the investigation by Federal Communications Commission that AT&T; began offering unlimited data plans in 2007 and in 2011 it began to reduce data speeds for customers enrolled in unlimited plans who had used a fixed amount of data in a single billing cycle and this very practice is known as throttling. The agency also added, at the time of accessing to the internet, the consumers could get only 5 percent of the expected speed. According to the information collected by the F.C.C., the users have to gather experience of getting slower service for 12 days each billing cycle.



According to the opinion of Travis Le Blance, the F.C.C’s head of the enforcement bureau, “Unlimited means unlimited. He also added “ The commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits.”



Michael Balmoris, a spokesman for AT&T;, has tried to give his argument against the charged writing in a email “The F.C.C. has specifically identified this practice as a legitimate and reasonable way to manage network resources for the benefit of all consumers, and has known for long time that all of the main carriers use it.” He also wrote, “We have been fully transparent with our consumers, providing notice in multiple ways.” In this regards he also pointed a notice posted to the wireless carrier’s website.



The Federal Communications Commission mentioned that it had to receive thousands of objections from AT&T; consumers enrolled in unlimited data plans and that the service of millions of users had been impaired. In this circumstances AT&T; was not allowed longer to offer unlimited data plans to new users it was allowed just to renew their contracts who have already enrolled the plan.



The rule 2010 that the Federal Communication Commission says AT&T; violated its part of the agency’s 2010 Open Internet Order, a recent attempt by the agency to protech the principles of net neutrality, or the idea that no service provider should be allowed to manipulate web users’ access to content. While most of that order was invalidated by a federal court after Verizon sued the F.C.C., tha transparency rule applied in this case was upheld by the court and has been in effect since 2011.