Today the Federal Communications Commission announced that T-Mobile has agreed to enable consumers to accurately gauge the speeds being offered on T-Mobile’s network even if they are being throttled. T-Mobile will now send customers text alerts when they are being throttled after reaching their data cap. The company also promises to update its website with the most commonly experienced speeds in order to increase transparency.
This agreement follows an Open Internet transparency complaint Public Knowledge initiated against all four major wireless carriers in August. In October Verizon reached an agreement with the FCC to stop throttling unlimited 4G data subscribers, the very behavior at the heart of Public Knowledge’s complaint against Verizon.
The following can be attributed to Michael Weinberg, Vice President of Public Knowledge:
“We commend the FCC for moving quickly to investigate our complaint against T-Mobile, and are encouraged that the FCC and T-Mobile were able to come to an agreement that increases transparency for T-Mobile’s customers. T-Mobile’s customers will be well served by alerts informing them when their internet connection is being throttled. It is also encouraging that T-Mobile’s customers will be able to test the actual internet speed they are experiencing, and not some theoretical network speed unavailable to them.
“However, we remain concerned that T-Mobile continues to prevent its subscribers from using the speed test application of their choice. Why is T-Mobile afraid to let its customers test their network connection as they see fit? What results are T-Mobile trying to shield from the public? If T-Mobile is truly confident that they are managing their network responsibly, Public Knowledge hopes that they will free their subscribers to test their network connection with an application that they trust, not one that was pre-approved by T-Mobile.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.