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T-Mobile backtracks on new data cap

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 12 Jan 2011 at 16:20

T-Mobile has changed its mind about slashing its fair use policy's data cap, saying the lower limit will only apply to new customers.

The mobile operator angered customers earlier this week by cutting its fair use policy data cap to 500MB from 1GB or higher.

The change was to apply to existing customers, but will now only cover customers signing up from 1 February, T-Mobile said.

“Following a further review of our policy, these changes will now be introduced from 1 February, to new and upgrading customers only - not existing customers," said Lysa Hardy, vice president of T-Mobile UK.

"There will be no change to the data packages for existing customers for the duration of their contract and we apologise for any confusion caused," she added.

Under T-Mobile's terms and conditions, changes to the contract are allowed as long as they cause no "material detriment" to the customer and fair warning is given. Consumer watchdogs earlier today expressed concern the change might not be legal, heaping additional pressure on the mobile operator.

A legal expert told PC Pro that changes to mobile contracts were common. "Mobile contracts change quite a lot and quite regularly, but normally they're for the better rather than the other way around," said Jon Fell of Pinset Masons.

Under the new policy, customers will not be charged for exceeding the 500MB cap. While such data hungry users will still be allowed access to email and browsing, they will not be allowed to download or stream video for the rest of the month unless they upgrade with a 1GB a month "broadband booster".

"This will ensure an improved quality of service for all of our mobile internet users," T-Mobile claimed.

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User comments

I think we won!

At times like this I really do love the power of the internet to let consumers scare the living crap out of companies when they try to screw customers over.

By profet79 on 12 Jan 2011

Too right.

I had a CS manager on the phone an hour ago saying their legal team have looked at this, it's robust, will stand up to challenges, is not a material change and won't allow anyone to cancel early... wish I had his number to call back and say told you so.

Too funny.

By Deano on 12 Jan 2011

will only apply to new customers

Well that's much fairer for those whose contracts specified 1 gig although 500 meg of data won't exactly entice me to become a new customer.

By Lacrobat on 12 Jan 2011

Why did they have to worry us like that?
But decent data caps were the main reason for going with T-mobile.
I'll stick with my 3Gb limit thank you very much, after all, it is what I pay for!

By confucious on 12 Jan 2011

Is it really petty that I want to make sure I use the full 3gb every month until the contract is over?

I was only using about 300mb before but don't think it's right that they can take away my option to use more.

By franchise on 12 Jan 2011

Android 3 gb

Android phone owners will presumably retain their special "free" higher 3gb limit due to their power user status on this network?

By stefani on 13 Jan 2011

t-mobile VOIP

Will t-mobile be cancelling their restriction on using VOIP such as Skype? I plan to switch to 3 when my contract runs out next month.

By RobertinHerts on 13 Jan 2011

It's sad that this is happening around the same time that reports are surfacing that Windows Phone 7 can use 30-50MB a day just on idle data usage.

By drslothy on 13 Jan 2011

@stefani

Only existing Android customers will continue to receive the 3GB allowance, and that's only because of T-Mobile backtracking yesterday, the initial plan was for ALL customers immaterial of handset to be restricted to 500MB of downloads (but not limited on browsing) but for Spotify users and podcast downloads that don't help much!

By Deano on 13 Jan 2011

Hold the Phone!

Wait, what?! T-Mobile android users get a 3GB allowance?!

I have a nexus S on T-Mobile! All of sudden this is an awesome news story :D (thanks for the tip folks)

By rozman on 13 Jan 2011

Quote 'There will be no change to the data packages for existing customers for the duration of their contract and we apologise for any confusion caused'

This looks to me like now they are trying to say that this was the case all along, and that everybody on the Web got the wrong end of the stick.

A company that listens to their Customers +1 for them, i still wont ever join them.

By andy_fogg on 13 Jan 2011

I use my blackberry for normal emails, podcasts, internet radio, tweeting, updating facebook (allegedly), instant messaging, sat nav, geocaching (not so much in the cold), checking the weather... you get the idea.
I'm more than a little narked that my services could all stop inside a couple of weeks, as one podcast alone could easily be 60mb +. That's a quarter of my allowance gone in 2 episode.

By khellan on 14 Jan 2011

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