When carriers say they offer an unlimited plan there is always a ‘but’, and T-Mobile is one of the carriers who offer “unlimited” data with caps for tethering and 4G LTE. For most customers the 4G LTE data cap is enough for tethering, but for some techy savvy users they want and need more at these faster speeds. Some users are using apps and other tricks to get around throttled data that could put a huge damper on your Netflix show or the work that needs to get done. CEO John Legere, isn’t happy about this and is going to stop these users from doing so.
“This week, I am taking aim at a select group of individuals who have actually been stealing data from T-Mobile,” Legere said in a recent blog post. “If their activities are left unchecked their actions could eventually have a negative effect on the experience of honest T-Mobile customers. Not on my watch.”
Legere claims only 1/100th of a percent of its customer base is rooting, jailbreaking, or otherwise hacking their phones to maneuvering around these data caps and then being throttled. The company is going after the first 3,000 customers starting monday. What they will do if they catch you using over your 7GB tethering cap isn’t all that bad in fact. The company will first warn you that they’ve busted you using a tool to prevent throttling of data. After that if your busted again you’ll be bumped from the unlimited plan to the simple choice plan which only offers 1GB of 4G LTE.
“I’m not sure what they are doing with it – stealing wireless access for their entire business, powering a small cloud service, providing broadband to a small city, mining for bitcoin — but I really don’t care,” Legere said. While they are paying for “unlimited” data nothing can be unlimited when we are all measuring how much tv, web pages, and internet we consume each day. The mobile networks are over crowded with customers using too much data on their smartphones, and this is causing networks to slow down and many more problems behind the scenes.
While this more than likely won’t affect you, and if it does you have a little time to prevent anything from happening, it does affect the network that’s trying to compete with AT&T and Verizon who have massive networks and spectrum.
Tell us what you think about T-Mobile going after customers who abuse their unlimited data in the comments down below!