T-Mobile Identifies Data Hogs Using P2P Sharing, Plans Attack for August 17

According to an internal memo obtained by TmoNews, T-Mobile has identified “data hog” users on its network, taking advantage of their unlimited 4G LTE data plan, who utilize their bandwidth for P2P sharing and file torrenting, inevitably lowering the LTE experience for other users on the network.

T-Mobile has sent the following statement to its employees, saying that a plan of action will begin starting August 17, as contact will be made to customers who are breaking the company’s Terms and Conditions. 

As for which customers should worry about receiving a note from T-Mobile, plus a throttle down the road if data usage does not change on the user’s account, anyone with an older $70 unlimited plan or newer $80 Simple Choice plan who use their phone for P2P and file torrenting beyond a reasonable amount can expect to receive a notice.

The internal memo to employees reads as so.

T-mobile has identified customers who are heavy data users and are engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing, and tethering outside of T-Mobile’s Terms and Conditions (T&C). This results in a negative data network experience for T-Mobile customers. Beginning August 17, T-Mobile will begin to address customers who are conducting activities outside of T-Mobile’s T&Cs.

T-Mobile has also laid out its complete plan of attack against these customers, should the message about data usage go unheeded.

1. T-Mobile will contact customers to explain terms and conditions to them, and then advise them that data speed could be reduced until the next billing cycle IF they continue to misuse the data service.
2. When the customer is contacted, T-Mobile will apply a ‘Misuse Warning SOC’ to their account.
3. If behavior continues, the existing warning SOC is replaced by a ‘Misuse Throttle SOC’ and their data speeds get reduced.
4. These SOCs are visible to customer care and other staff who access the user’s account, to make it clear to them why they might be experiencing slower speeds.

As we can see, the throttling of an account is a last resort, which means T-Mobile would really like people to just use their data properly. They are giving options to customers, which actually seems rather nice of them in comparison to what they could do.

If you are one of these users, gobbling up GeeBees upon GeeBees of data, please, think of the children and use your home’s Internet connection instead.

Via: TmoNews