T-Mobile Backtracks On Data Cap Cuts

Mobile operator T-Mobile has backtracked on a decision made earlier this week to impose a 500MB cap on the amount of data that customers on its network are allowed to consume in a month.

In a statement published on T-Mobile’s support site, the company’s vice president Lysa Hardy explained that, following a further review, the operator had decided the changes would only apply to new and upgrading customers, and not be applied to existing customers until their contracts expire.

“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,” said Hardy. “The revision to the Fair Use Policy is designed to ensure an improved quality of service for all mobile internet users.”

Breaking its own T&Cs

The U-turn follows severe criticism of the move by consumer group Which?, that suggested T-Mobile was breaking its own terms and conditions by announcing the fair use cap reduction less than 30 days before the changes take effect on 1 February.

“If T-Mobile insists on applying the new fair usage caps to existing customers, we believe it should postpone their implementation until all its customers have had 30 days written notice of the changes and thus ample opportunity to protest,” stated a Which? blog post.

T-Mobile does not charge customers that exceed the 500GB limit, but does throttle the speed of their mobile broadband connections between 4pm and midnight each day for the remainder of the month, once that limit has been passed.

T-Mobile is the latest operator to take drastic measures in order to tackle the problem of data overload on mobile networks. In June 2010, O2 announced it was scrapping its unlimited data deals, following a number of embarrassing network failures in London.

The operator was forced to admit that the crashes were caused by the bandwidth strain from the increasing use of smartphones. Vodafone and 3UK were quick to follow, capping data usage at 1GB per month.