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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

For decades now, U.S. wireless carriers have sold consumers “unlimited data” plans that actually have all manner of sometimes hidden throttling, caps, download limits, and restrictions. And every few years a regulator comes out with a wrist slap against wireless carriers for misleading consumers, for whatever good it does.

Back in 2007, for example, then NY AG Andrew Cuomo fined Verizon a tiny $150,000 [reuters.com] for selling “unlimited” plans that were very limited (Verizon kept doing it anyway). In 2019, the FTC fined AT&T $60 million [theverge.com] for selling “unlimited” plans that were very limited, then repeatedly lying to consumers about it (impacted consumers ultimately saw refunds of around $22 each [arstechnica.com]).

It’s gotten slightly better, but it’s still a problem. Providers still impose all manner of weird restrictions on mobile lines and then bury them in their fine print, something that’s likely only to get worse after Trump 2.0 takes an absolute hatchet [techdirt.com] to whatever’s left of regulatory independence and federal consumer protection.

In the interim, telecom providers are even bickering about the definition of “unlimited” between themselves. For example Verizon is mad that Charter Communications (a cable company that got into wireless) is advertising its wireless service as “unlimited,” while telling users they can “use all the data you want.”

[Source]: Techdirt [techdirt.com]

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