We’re not too far removed from a time when carriers still advertised unlimited data plans, even though they didn’t really mean it. Verizon came under fire in late 2007 for booting users from its network because they exceeded a 5GB cap about which they were not aware. That led to carriers actually advertising their 5GB caps. Users who exceeded that amount paid an overage charge. T-Mobile has changed that, though. Instead of charging 10 to 20 cents per megabyte for overages, they’ll simply throttle data speeds once users exceed their cap.
This applies to the 5GB monthly webConnect data plan. Users can consume as much data as they like, but once they hit that cap they’ll see their transfer speed drop. There is no word on exactly how slow the plans will go. Unless they’re in the double-digit Kbps range, users will find it a mere annoyance. It certainly will be preferable to the overage charges.
Those using T-Mobile’s 200MB plan will continue to pay overage charges. That makes enough sense. Otherwise they’d have plenty of people who can tolerate lower speeds on their 200MB plan, plodding through the data consumed above the limit. The overage charge, however, has been reduced from 20 cents to 10 cents, a nice bonus for the lower-tier data users.
This new consumption structure is available now.
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