AT&T TO THROTTLE SMARTPHONE DATA

AT&T said on Friday that it will begin throttling unlimited smartphone data plans as of October 1st. “Like other wireless companies, we’re taking steps to manage exploding demand for mobile data,” AT&T said Friday in a statement. The carrier continued, “One new measure is a step that may reduce the data throughput speed experienced by a very small minority of smartphone customers who are on unlimited plans – those whose extraordinary level of data usage puts them in the top 5 percent of our heaviest data users in a billing period. In fact, these customers on average use 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone data customers.” AT&T was very careful to mention, repeatedly, that the new move will not impact the “vast majority” of its customers. According to the carrier’s statement, only the top 5% of its smartphone data users will be affected.