T-Mobile president and CEO John Legere warned that it will start getting in touch with customers it thinks are using more wireless data than they’re entitled to and asking them to stop stealing data and abusing the company’s network.
"This week, I am taking aim at a select group of individuals who have actually been stealing data from T-Mobile," Legere wrote in a blog post. "If their activities are left unchecked their actions could eventually have a negative effect on the experience of honest T-Mobile customers."
With the purchase of a T-Mobile unlimited 4G LTE data plan from T-Mobile, customers get a set amount of free LTE to use for tethering. When that data gets used up, speeds are throttled, meaning that if customers want more data at full speed, they must pay for it.
According to Legere, though, some customers are using workarounds to claim more LTE tethered data, using rooted phones, apps that hide tether usage or code written to mask activity. Legere referred to such users as "clever hackers who are willfully stealing for their own selfish gain."
Only about 3,000 of T-Mobile’s 59 million customers are using the workarounds referred to by Legere. But those who are doing so are using up to 2TB of data each month.
T-Mobile plans to crack down on the users who it claims are stealing data, starting today. Those customers will be warned, then possibly lose access to our Unlimited 4G LTE smartphone data plan, and be moved to an entry-level limited 4G LTE data plan, according to T-Mobile.
According to industry data, Android owners averaged 2.4GB of usage in December 2014, more than twice the 1.1GB used by 3G subscribers in the same month. According to Comcast, its average home customer uses 40GB of data per month.
"I'm not in this business to play data cop, but we started this wireless revolution to change the industry for good and to fight for consumers," Legere concluded. "I won't let a few thieves ruin things for anyone else."
Source: http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13300B2C9DDV