T-Mobile Slashes Fair Use Policy, Says Download At Home

nk497 writes "T-Mobile in the UK has revealed a new fair use policy, cutting caps from 1GB and 3GB to 500MB, saying mobile browsing doesn't include videos or large downloads. 'If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband,' the company said. All those people who have bought smartphones with the aim of doing such things on the go may not agree with the mobile operator, however. Any user that goes over the new limit won't be charged, but will be blocked from downloading or streaming for the rest of the month."

But...

[moosehooey]

If they don't want you doing all these gee-whiz things with your phone, they should stop featuring them in their television commercials.

False Advertising?

[nukem996]

Every smart phone commercial you see boasts about how when you buy smart phone X on network Y you can browse, e-mail, watch videos, stream music, download huge documents and do anything you can with a laptop on your smart phone. Hell the phones come with apps preinstalled to do many of these high bandwidth thing. However when you look at the agreements most will specifically say only basic web browsing and e-mail is allowed. Isn't that considered false advertising? How long until a law suit comes up?

Re:Dear T-Mobile,

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Customer,

Your decision to cancel today comes as a clear indication that you make up one of the 1% of our customers who consume 90% of our network resources.

As we don't make any money off you, we won't be sorry to see you go.

Sincerely,

T-Mobile.

Re:slow network?

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you on crack?

Please mod this insightful.

it's not just about phones

[rapiddescent]

many people bought the Huawei U220 USB data modems a couple of years ago and use the T-Mobile service just for data. These were sold as "broadband replacement" services and cost GBP25/month on contract. There's no way I'm paying that much for 500Mb pcm. My data volumes usually are in the 1.5Gb per month for work and the odd yum -y update that sneaks by unnoticed.

I have one plugged into my Draytek Vigor [draytek.co.uk] home office router as a backup for when the broadband service goes down - it has a Solwise [solwise.co.uk] high gain antenna attached to it. I also have one plugged into my work Linux laptop ("it just works" with network manager).

TFA [t-mobile.co.uk] referenced in the TFA says: "Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games."

WTF? I was sold "mobile broadband" - it's a data service, nothing is mentioned about browsing at all.

Re:slow network?

[SuricouRaven]

This would almost be an acceptable justification, if not for one detail: They previously promised more then they are now able to deliver. This is bordering on false advertising, made legal only by a line of small print that allows them to change the contract any time they wish. If they don't have the ability to deliver larger amounts of data, they shouldn't have promised customers they would

Re:Bait & switch

[jpapon]

If credit ratings in the UK are anything like those in the US, they won't sue you for not paying.

They'll just report that you have an arrears balance, which will destroy your credit rating and prevent you from ever buying a house, getting a subsidized phone, buying a car using a loan, getting a credit card etc etc etc.

Re:Bait & switch

[jimicus]

Here's what you do.

Read your contract. While they're usually in pretty small print, the important clauses that apply here are probably not all that long or complicated - and there is every chance that there really is no clause in the contract that allows them to do this, particularly if you're signed up through a retailer like Carphone Warehouse.

Once you've done that - and assuming I'm right and they have broken the contract - call cancellations and ask for a PAC code to move your number elsewhere. When they say you're still under contract, point out that T-Mobile have broken the terms of that contract.

They may try a number of tricks to argue that it still applies. I've faced a similar issue with a different provider and I've been told:

• "You aren't doing the thing we're charging you more for anyway, so it doesn't affect you and therefore doesn't apply". (Really? Where in the contract does it say they can do that? How do they know that your circumstances aren't about to change such that you will be doing it in the near future? Because you've got it in front of you, you're looking at the cancellation clauses and can't see anything of the sort. Ask these questions politely, calmly and firmly - don't back down until they've finally admitted it says no such thing in the contract.)
• "Every other telco has done something similar." (Again, where in the contract does it say that they're allowed to do what they like without notice if everyone else is doing it? Again, don't back down)
• "This affects everyone on T-Mobile, not just you." (Where in the contract does it say that it's perfectly OK if they do this to everyone rather than singling out one customer?)

No doubt they'll invent some other argument. Same question applies though: where in the contract does it say that their argument is valid? You just have to remain calm, polite and firm.

wireless providers never cease to amaze

[troll -1]

They have managed to turn the free airways into the most expensive form of communication ever. There is nothing in the physics of the electromagnetic spectrum to support their saturation theories. If they ran the Internet your ISP bill would list every site you went to, overseas sites would be billed at a higher rate, and email would be sold as separate service.

The problem with wireless isn't a lack of regulation but lack of competition that results in governments allowing a few companies to oligopolize a medium that costs nothing.

Re:slow network?

[stiggle]

This is not a contract change - the "Fair Usage Policy" conditions are already in the contract, and they can modify the terms of the policy whenever they want without a change to the contract.

I had this problem with O2 when they changed their meaning of "unlimited" to 500Mb.
So I told them they can can an unlimited amount of money from my account to pay for my unlimited bandwidth - upto £5 pcm. Oddly enough, they complained that that wasn't an unlimited amount of money.