T-Mobile questioned over data usage reductions
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 10:02:25
Mobile network operator T-Mobile has been criticised after it announced that it would be reducing the monthly data usage limits imposed on all of its contract customers.
Originally there were a number of different data tariffs on offer, with smartphone owners allowed to use between 1GB and 3GB a month, depending on the type of mobile they choose, as well as how much they were willing to pay each month.
Now T-Mobile has confirmed that everyone will be getting their allowance cut to 500MB, which will seriously restrict the type of activities which modern smartphones will be able to offer consumers when they are out and about.
T-Mobile fought back against its critics by saying that statistics show the average customer uses 200MB of their data allowance and thus the 500MB cap will be acceptable to the majority.
This figure begs the question as to why it is even worth cutting the data allowance if T-Mobile is making money from selling a range of high limit tariffs and then benefitting when their customers never get close to the upper limit.
The real issue here is that video streaming and app downloading will be something that has to be reserved for when a smartphone is hooked up to a broadband connection via Wi-Fi, as this could quickly eat into the 500MB cap if used regularly.
T-Mobile even explicitly made this point in a press release announcing the limit reduction, which implies that a select group of customers were taking full advantage of the large caps and streaming more than the network was willing to accept.
Now it looks like heavy users could be well within their rights to dump T-Mobile in the middle of their contracts and potentially sell on their mobile phone for a profit, before signing up with a rival like Three, who can actually promise unlimited data usage on certain tariffs.
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