After some unfavorable press and caution from would-be buyers over the threatened 1GB data cap, T-Mobile have backtracked on their throttling policy. In a statement just issued by the carrier, they describe their intention as to “provide the best network experience for all our customers”; however they also remove the 1GB soft-cap, pending further review of the data plan terms & conditions.
“Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.
We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers” T-Mobile statement
Instead, it appears T-Mobile will move to throttle back only those customers deemed to be abusing their data connection. The previously mentioned threat was a reduction to 50 kbps or less.
Of course, an unknown data limit can be just as frustrating as a known, low limit, as it gives no way to gauge how close your usage is to what the carrier would deem “excessive or disproportionate”. Hopefully T-Mobile’s “specific terms” will be finalized sooner rather than later, so that buyers can decide if the $25 “unlimited” data plan is really worth it.
