AT&T Sued by FTC Over ‘Throttling’ Smartphone Data Speeds

AT&T Inc. was accused in a lawsuit by U.S. regulators of deceiving at least 3.5 million smartphone customers who paid for unlimited data plans and had their transmission speed drastically reduced in a practice known as “data throttling.”

AT&T in 2011 began throttling speeds for customers who went over their data limits and failed to adequately notify them, the Federal Trade Commission said. The agency is seeking a court order halting the practice and millions of dollars in damages for customers. Most of those affected were Apple iPhone users.