Sprint curbs most extreme wireless data use

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse in his Citi conference remarks revealed that Sprint was throttling some of its cellular users. While the plans are technically unlimited, the top one percent of users are slowed down. He suggested that Sprint could "knock them off" if they truly misused the data, but it wasn't clear this had ever happened or was an active policy.

The practice is now common on most US carriers, whether officially acknowledged or not. AT&T began in October for unlimited plan users and was met in near sync by Verizon. T-Mobile had started before either.

Sprint has always maintained that on-phone unlimited data remains its selling point, but it has been gradually whittling back where and how it provides unlimited elsewhere. It first capped tethering plans and later followed suit for modems and tablets. The cuts are generally acknowledged as cost-saving measures to help Sprint afford subsidies now that it has the iPhone.

Critics have said Sprint's advertising of "truly unlimited" data would be broken by throttling, although it's referring to bandwidth caps, not speed.

By Electronista Staff