T-Mobile To Throttle Customers That Use Torrents

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Bad news for T-Mobile customers that like downloading Linux distros off torrent sites. An internal memo shows that the company has new ways of dealing with you.

T-mobile has identified customers who are heavy data users and are engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing, and tethering outside of T-Mobile’s Terms and Conditions (T&C). This results in a negative data network experience for T-Mobile customers. Beginning August 17, T-Mobile will begin to address customers who are conducting activities outside of T-Mobile’s T&Cs
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This is what you get when a company wants to offer unlimited for marketing reasons but doesn't actually have the bandwidth to really provide unlimited (and cellular providers DON'T). The unlimited plans end up making people think it's ok to do dumb shit like use bittorrent on a cellular connection and then they have to put in place measures to stop people doing that dumb shit.

If you have to download a linux distro on the go do everyone a favour and download it over a traditional protocol. Cellular bandwidth is far more of a limited resource than mirror bandwidth.

Though honestly I suspect the cause of this is more people illegally downloading movies than people legally downloading linux distros.
 
Torrenting off cell towers? Really!! Keep the torrenting to your home/business, not cell towers!
 
felt said:
Torrenting off cell towers? Really!! Keep the torrenting to your home/business, not cell towers!
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Some people have unlimited LTE plans and use that connection for an entire house. It can work quite well and be cheaper than land based broadband.
 
When a consumer is offered unlimited service, why wouldn't they use it for anything they'd use an Internet connection for.
I'm not saying it's right I'm just saying the company should check a dictionary first.
 
plugwash said:
This is what you get when a company wants to offer unlimited for marketing reasons but doesn't actually have the bandwidth to really provide unlimited (and cellular providers DON'T). The unlimited plans end up making people think it's ok to do dumb shit like use bittorrent on a cellular connection and then they have to put in place measures to stop people doing that dumb shit.

If you have to download a linux distro on the go do everyone a favour and download it over a traditional protocol. Cellular bandwidth is far more of a limited resource than mirror bandwidth.

Though honestly I suspect the cause of this is more people illegally downloading movies than people legally downloading linux distros.
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Traditional protocols are for less releiable and much more prone to getting you nothing more than a 99.99% complete file that is corrupt and unusable...necessitating downloading it again.

Torrent as a protocol is far superior for large files compared to FTP or HTTP.
 
ocellaris said:
Some people have unlimited LTE plans and use that connection for an entire house. It can work quite well and be cheaper than land based broadband.
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And exactly the reason why many plans now prohibit tethering, you want to look at the internet? Fine do it as you see fit on your phone, you want to hook your phone to a computer because why should you have to pay for an ISP? sorry you ruined it for everyone.
 
People say that if a wireless carrier can't handle unlimited data they should do one of the following...
1. Not sell unlimited data
2. Upgrade their network

Counter argument to "Not sell unlimited data". There's unlimited data usage and then there's responsible unlimited data usage. Just because it's there doesn't mean you should go out of your way to use all of that finite resource. It's like owning a car that can speed along at 220 mph; just because it can doesn't mean that you should push the gas pedal down.

Counter argument to "Upgrade their network". OK, so you're telling me that because you, the "unlimited data chowing down idiot", your wireless carrier should be forced to install a new tower that will essentially be completely inundated with your data usage. Wow, just wow. Who the hell do you think you are? The Queen of England? The President of the United States?
 
sfsuphysics said:
And exactly the reason why many plans now prohibit tethering, you want to look at the internet? Fine do it as you see fit on your phone, you want to hook your phone to a computer because why should you have to pay for an ISP? sorry you ruined it for everyone.
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Actually...remember how Verizon took billions from New Jersey to build out home broadband networks, and turned around and said their LTE service counts as "home broadband" and kept the money?
 
trparky said:
Counter argument to "Not sell unlimited data". There's unlimited data usage and then there's responsible unlimited data usage. Just because it's there doesn't mean you should go out of your way to use all of that finite resource. It's like owning a car that can speed along at 220 mph; just because it can doesn't mean that you should push the gas pedal down.
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So if I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, it's ok if they kick me out for eating too much of the expensive food?

Unlimited is unlimited. If they are going to put limits on how much data you can use, or what you can access, then it's NOT unlimited, and they should be charged with false advertisement if they keep selling it that way.
 
T-Mobile already throttles when you hit a certain amount of monthly data anyways.
You still get unlimited data, you're just not getting it at the top speed.
My Sprint 4g connection (hit 5+mbs on large downloads) is faster than my Time Warner 15/1 service (lucky to get 3/.5, only keep it because the latency is lower and I game online) so I download large files on my phone, then transfer wirelessly to my pc, and it takes less time.
Crazy right?
I honestly wouldn't be doing it if my home connection was as fast as it was supposed to be, and no, itsnot my router or modem, I've tested.
 
trparky said:
Counter argument to "Not sell unlimited data". There's unlimited data usage and then there's responsible unlimited data usage. Just because it's there doesn't mean you should go out of your way to use all of that finite resource. It's like owning a car that can speed along at 220 mph; just because it can doesn't mean that you should push the gas pedal down.
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That's not an argument. Cause That's a LIMIT... not from the car but from those that police the road.
Also it's a well documented limit with plenty of signage and your meter (speedometer) is legally required to be a fairly accurate measure of that limit.
 
trparky said:
Counter argument to "Not sell unlimited data". There's unlimited data usage and then there's responsible unlimited data usage.
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That's rediculous.

If I sell you unlimited donuts, I can't bitch and moan because you're "eating too many donuts" and then say after X-amount of donuts I'll only give you one a week.

If you want to sell people "up to 100 donuts", then simply do that. Its a matter of false advertising. The advertising like the sound of "unlimited" but the company is unwilling if not incapable of delivering that.

They SHOULD BE SUED for false advertising, as there is no more blatant case than this.

Its the same with upload bullshit, no one advertises it, and IMO it should simply be a requirement for ISPs, the same as we have requirements for all food manufacturers to put nutrition labels on their food or car manufacturers to put window stickers for the mileage.

And that's another thing that pisses me off, how hard Comcast makes it (at least in the past) to figure out what your ACTUAL internet bill is after the 6month or 1 year trial period is over.
 
I was in Orlando last week and the LTE speeds I was pulling on my phone (75/40) were better than my hard-wired cable connection at home.
 
and tethering outside of T-Mobile’s Terms and Conditions (T&C)
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This is what they really want to chase. A rooted phone can tether without the $10/mo fee they tack on for the "feature".
 
Skripka said:
Traditional protocols are for less releiable and much more prone to getting you nothing more than a 99.99% complete file that is corrupt and unusable...necessitating downloading it again.

Torrent as a protocol is far superior for large files compared to FTP or HTTP.
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rar + par much?
 
Realistically we should eliminate unlimited data for wireless users (and I still have a legacy AT&T unlimited plan) ... now that speeds are high, it is much easier to clog up the bandwidth of the limited number of wireless towers and access points ... hard line connections should generally have unlimited bandwidth ...

this would allow for the most effective competition between the services ... wireless: fast, readily available, but limited and subject to congestion ... wired: full range of speeds from fast to lightning fast, not as available due to infrastructure requirements (physical connection to each user), and unlimited while being less subject to congestion
 
I told you guys before... it's the people that abused the system, that screwed it for all.
 
Ruoh said:
I told you guys before... it's the people that abused the system, that screwed it for all.
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You can't abuse Unlimited by definition.

So when does corporate America for doing the same thing day in and day out?
 
plupien79 said:
You can't abuse Unlimited by definition.

So when does corporate America for doing the same thing day in and day out?
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I guess people don't get kicked out of all you can eat buffets either, right?
 
techie81 said:
Hotspot is free with most plans.
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This is true.

But is hotspot on the "unlimited" plan also unlimited? For some reason I thought it was unlimited phone data, and then some limit (5gb) tethered/hotspot data. I could be wrong though.

Which is why they would want to regulate "unauthorized" tethering.
 
A lot of "all you can eat" restaurants (that aren't buffets) bring you your next servings either slower and slower each time or with a good deal of preparation time between servings so you have a chance to register how full you really are so you eat less.
Again, throttling your speed isn't restricting you from your unlimited data because the companies never say what speed your unlimited data is going to be, 2g, 3g or 4g.
You're STILL receiving unlimited data, just not at the highest speed.
Now if you've been promised UNLIMITED 4g and get throttled, there's a problem. But if you watch the adds on tv, its just UNLIMITED DATA with no promise of what speed that data will be delivered.
Yes, its a bit sleazy, but its MUCH BETTER than being told unlimited and getting a bill for additional data charges.
 
My T-Mobile unlimited everything plan includes tethering in the unlimited data pool. I ran my house on it for the two weeks it took charter to turn my line on and have a tech install the modem. Was it ideal? No but it worked better than the dsl I was stuck with at my old apartment.
 
I don't think you guys seem to understand that the term "unlimited" does not mean unlimited data allowance at an unlimited rate. It's marketing speak for "you won't be charged extra for going over an arbitrary monthly data allowance". Read through your all the legalese when you sign up on ANY service and it will say they reserve every right to throttle you, or even cut you off, if they feel like you are negatively impacting their services and the service of others.

Keep in mind, the way these companies market their products is for the average consumer, not for the statistical outliers, which is why they use terms like "unlimited" in place of technobable like "unlimited data allowance at a rate of 17.6Mbps off peak, and 3.5Mbps on peak, up to 250GB per month at which a rate of 5Mbps off peak, 1Mbps on peak kicks in."

And FWIW, the All You Can Eat Buffet comparison is not even remotely valid. Compare the amount of data in the world to the amount of food available in a buffet, and similarly compare the rate at which you can download that data to the rate at which you can eat food in that buffet...it's an absolutely ridiculous comparison.
 
Nanan said:
My T-Mobile unlimited everything plan includes tethering in the unlimited data pool. I ran my house on it for the two weeks it took charter to turn my line on and have a tech install the modem. Was it ideal? No but it worked better than the dsl I was stuck with at my old apartment.
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Are you sure? Is that an old plan? Because currently they say "Unlimited 4G data includes 5 GB of tethering" on their website. (I just checked to confirm)

I don't know how recent that language is, I switched to TMo within the last few months which is the only reason I had been looking at the fine print.
 
Also my T-Mobile LTE has consistently beat out my home 25/25 fios connection for download (which Frontier needs to be upgrading, I've had the same speeds going on 4 years now without any upgrades...). My last speed test I saved is 37/16 which is very respectable...

So I can certainly see the appeal of using it to torrent... that's a lot of data in a short amount of time.
 
SGA76 said:
A lot of "all you can eat" restaurants (that aren't buffets) bring you your next servings either slower and slower each time or with a good deal of preparation time between servings so you have a chance to register how full you really are so you eat less.
Again, throttling your speed isn't restricting you from your unlimited data because the companies never say what speed your unlimited data is going to be, 2g, 3g or 4g.
You're STILL receiving unlimited data, just not at the highest speed.
Now if you've been promised UNLIMITED 4g and get throttled, there's a problem. But if you watch the adds on tv, its just UNLIMITED DATA with no promise of what speed that data will be delivered.
Yes, its a bit sleazy, but its MUCH BETTER than being told unlimited and getting a bill for additional data charges.
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll pay for my unlimited 2g data in loose change. I mean, they still get their money, like them I'm just fulfilling my side of the agreement in the most inconvenient way possible...

Hypothetically anyways. I actually pay Verizon an arm and a leg every month for very limited data. :(
 
T-Mobile can call their service whatever they want, ultimately it comes down to what you agreed to in the T&Cs and contract. A name is just a name, no matter how misleading it might be.

It's the same as car dealerships or other places that provide "lifetime warranties". If you read the details they really aren't lifetime warranties....just very extended warranties with lots of conditions that invalidate them.

nutzo said:
So if I go to an all-you-can-eat buffet, it's ok if they kick me out for eating too much of the expensive food?
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At Chinese buffets, yes.
 
Why isn't the FTC cracking down on the marketing of "Unlimited". It's a simple word that we all know the meaning of and other industries are not allowed to use false advertising despite the use of an * and small print elsewhere.
 
The all you can eat buffet is a bullshit analogy anyway, since the limiting factor is capacity, not the amount of data passing through that capacity in total. And if you don't have the capacity to support all of your customers, punishing or limiting your customers is not a logical or appropriate response. That would be upgrading your capacity.

If we're using the buffet analogy here, what these companies are doing is letting more people into the buffet than they have plates for, and then kicking people out when too many want to eat at the same time. There's PLENTY of food, just not enough plates to serve it on to the number of people who already paid for the buffet. The solution is to buy more plates!
 
sfsuphysics said:
And exactly the reason why many plans now prohibit tethering, you want to look at the internet? Fine do it as you see fit on your phone, you want to hook your phone to a computer because why should you have to pay for an ISP? sorry you ruined it for everyone.
Click to expand...
Or maybe the fact that so many other cloud services are competing for this bandwidth. So many phones now don't come with SD Cards just for this reason. That's why the Amazon phone is complete garbage because it has no sd card. The reliance on cell phone internet is even greater. Services like torrents are slowing down their revenue, but not doing much for you.

Who's internet is it anyway? That's OK, VPN will fix it.
 
sfsuphysics said:
And exactly the reason why many plans now prohibit tethering, you want to look at the internet? Fine do it as you see fit on your phone, you want to hook your phone to a computer because why should you have to pay for an ISP? sorry you ruined it for everyone.
Click to expand...

Completely irrelevant. I was pulling 20GB/month with Tmobile just watching netflix shows on my lunch break. If I wanted to watch feature length movies in the evening and travel a lot I'm sure I could crest 100GB too, which is the average amount used by landline ISP users anyway, so mobile providers put themselves in this mess my offering unlimited at a time when the average idiot used maybe 1GB for nothing but facebook selfies.
 
trparky said:
Counter argument to "Not sell unlimited data". There's unlimited data usage and then there's responsible unlimited data usage. Just because it's there doesn't mean you should go out of your way to use all of that finite resource. It's like owning a car that can speed along at 220 mph; just because it can doesn't mean that you should push the gas pedal down.
Click to expand...

If Ford markets my car as a 220mph machine and gives no indication that this could cause a problem then hell yeah I'll take that bitch to the track and hit 220 every time, why wouldnt I?
 
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